;r 



. 




second ■'■.opy, 

I6b3. 




JUN6-1893 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. Copyright No 

SheltBVi 






UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Why Men Do Not Go To 
Church 



BY 

CORTLAND MYERS 

Minister at Baptist Temple, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Author of "Midnight in a Great City," "American Guns,* 
" The Best Place on Earth," etc. 



FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 
1899 




Copyright, 1899, by 

FUNK & W AGNAILS COMPANY 

[Registered at Stationers' Hall, England] 

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED, 




^*"*»i 







This book is affectionately dedicated 

to 

one of the best men 

who knows how to reach other men 

My brother 

Rev. Johnston Myers, D. D., 

pastor of the 

Immanuel Baptist Church, 

of Chicago , III. 

The Author 



CONTENTS 



Introduction - - - vii 

I 

The Faults of the Church - 13 

II 
The Faults of the Man - 87 

III 
The Faults of Society - -119 



INTRODUCTION 

\ A /hy men do not go to church/ ' 
is one of the burning questions 
of the hour. Its fires force their way 
into the heart of every earnest Chris- 
tian man. He is compelled to recog- 
nize it as a problem which demands 
his clearest thought, his most con- 
secrated service, and his holiest prayer. 
The heroic soul is always in peril of 
having his anxiety and activity called 
pessimism instead of heroism. It is 
courageous optimism to face the fadts. 

If a blind man falls into the ditch, 
pity him; but if a man wilfully closes 
his eyes and refuses to see the ditch, 
he is a criminal. He is not a pessi- 
mist who has eyes. He is a pessimist 
who has lost heart. A wise man 
holds a lantern at his feet and sees the 
precipice and yawning chasm. 

Fadls are not to be ignored, they 

yii 



viii WbE /Dben fco not go to Cburcb 

are to be studied; and every true man 
ought to go into training to fight the 
fadts, so that the church may not faint 
away some day at the sight of the foe. 
See the giants, but refuse to be called 
grasshoppers, and with Caleb take the 
land. Next to omnipotence the larg- 
est fadlor in the solution of the world's 
problems is the open-eyed Christian 
hero. Facfts are stubborn things, but 
not victorious, if faced with a look car- 
rying the lightnings in it. 

There are many problems which 
need the mathematics of heaven for 
their solution, but none more than the 
absence of men from our churches. 

* * Thou shalt worship the Lord thy 
God, ' ' and ' ' Remember the Sabbath- 
day to keep it holy," have less and 
less of a hold upon our American life. 
The man who does not recognize it is 
simply trying to cover up the weak- 
ness and dying state of his own church, 
and his lack of enthusiasm over the 



Ifntro&uctton 



triumph of Christ. The man who 
shouts "All's well," in the night of 
Christ's trial when the church is de- 
serted, is a traitor to his cause, and 
gives the enemy a better opportunity. 
More than one-half of the inhabit- 
ants of this country do not attend our 
churches to-day. If that is a fadl, it 
is appalling, but should be known. 
Of the non-church goers the vast ma- 
jority are men. There are millions of 
men in this country who have no con- 
nection whatever with the Christian 
church. While the churches have 
been growing in proportion to the 
population, it is estimated that there 
are at least ten millions of men not in 
any church. A few of them attend 
occasionally; some of them are em- 
ployed on the Sabbath-day; but most 
of them are as far from the Christian 
church as any pagans in the world. 
This immense army of ten millions is 
three times as large as was the whole 



x tl&bE Men bo not go to Cburcb 

population of the thirteen States at 
the Declaration of Independence. 

In New York City not more than 
three per cent, of the male population 
are members of Protestant churches. 
The men who are nominally commu- 
nicants in the Catholic church rarely 
ever attend 1 >s services. 

Of the membership of the church 
nearly three-fourths are women. Of 
the attendants in most places of wor- 
ship nine-tenths are women. In one 
great church I counted two hundred 
women and ten men. The statement 
has remained unchallenged that not 
ten churches in the State of Massachu- 
setts could count ten men added in the 
last three years from the non-church 
going population. This is not only 
true of the cities, but statistics reveal 
the startling truth, that even in the 
rural districts more than one-half of 
the population are absolute strangers 
to the churches, and live in heathen- 



IfntroDuction 



ism in the center of civilization and 
Christianity. 

This separation from the church is 
not only on the part of the so-called 
lower class and foreign population, 
but the rich are among the most 
guilty. There are the churchless and 
Christless rich. The social gathering 
and club-rooms are crowded on Sun- 
day, and the once filled churches are 
empty. We have written much con- 
cerning the "negledted poor;" there 
is greater demand for emphasis upon 
the needs of the " neglected rich." 

There is no necessity of multiplying 
figures, the fadls are known and recog- 
nized everywhere. In most places 
there is not room in our churches for 
one-half of the population, if they 
wanted to go. This room is not more 
than one-half taken; that which is 
taken is largely occupied by the 
women. Where are the men? This 
has not always been the condition. 



xii TKUbE flSen 60 not go to Gburcb 

What are the forces in modern life 
which are the producers of this evil? 
If we discover the cause of the illness, 
we are more liable to furnish a cure. 
If a man has heart-disease, cutting his 
finger-nails will not save him. I,et 
us be bold in our diagnosis, and 
patient and skilful and hopeful with 
the remedy; by all means save the 
men. 

Whatever has been said or written 
upon this problem has been usually a 
fragment of the truth, a segment of 
the whole circle. This discussion 
ought to include within its circumfer- 
ence the " faults of the church," the 
" faults of the man/' and the " faults 
of society.' ' 



WHY MEN DO NOT GO 
TO CHURCH 



FAUI/TS OF THB CHURCH 

A breast of the age, ' ' should be our 
watchword. The Gospel of the 
first century in a church of the twen- 
tieth century is the victorious combin- 
ation. "Out of date" methods and 
medieval churches are a failure and a 
farce in this new world and rushing 
time. The robes and rags of super- 
stition have no attractive force in 
these days of light and life. 

In almost every decade there is a 
revolution in the methods and move- 
ments of the world, and the church 
which has attractive power in that 
kind of a world must change with it. 
Men demand a church adapted to the 

13 *•» 



14 *cmbE ^Ilbei- oo not go to Cburcb 

dawning hours of a new century, and 
they have a right to that demand; 
and the church is traitor to its trust 
which does not meet it. 

The vast majority of men can not 
be driven to church; they can only be 
attracted. They will not go because 
it is their duty to go, or because the 
Bible tells them to go. They must 
have the centrifugal force of the 
church to counteract the centripetal 
force of their hearts and their world. 
The church should be a magnet to 
disturb the sleeping particles of man- 
hood on Sunday, and draw them to 
the place of worship. 

The building of the eighteenth cen- 
tury with an undertaker's sign upon 
it, and with the appearance of a sep- 
ulcher, and a ghostly preacher in the 
pulpit, and open only once in seven 
days, will always be repulsive to men, 
and filled with the irreligiousness of 
religion. 



Jfaults of tbe Cbutcb 15 

With every generation new condi- 
tions present themselves to the church. 
Society, business, politics, home, and 
everything has undergone a marked 
change within the last quarter of a 
century. The church has lost her 
grip upon these times if she does not 
move with them, and the men of this 
generation pass by without ever a 
thought of crossing its threshold. The 
changed conditions of human life have 
been called the church's "sealed or- 
ders,' ' to be opened, read, and obeyed 
when they occur. We must change 
our thought and work and machinery, 
and even the course of the ship, if we 
are to fulfil our mission. 

The old truth is sacred; old methods 
may not be. Truth can not be changed ; 
methods must always be changing. 
Aggressive inventiveness is the great- 
est fadlor in success from the human 
side. He who is wide awake, and 
lives in his own time, and pushes to 



16 TObs /Mien Do not go to Cburcb 

the front, and devises new methods, 
will be the center of gravity among 
the men of the world. He who runs 
in old ruts, and preaches old sermons, 
and works with old plans, is dead as 
far as the world is concerned. He has 
neither life nor power, and that is 
death. He who studies the right way 
of presenting truth, and the art of put- 
ting things, and the skill in catching 
men, and understands the importance 
of tadl and sandlified common sense, 
is ' l like a tree planted by the rivers of 
water, that bringeth forth his fruit in 
his season. His leaf also shall not 
wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall 
prosper." 

If the old methods are worn out and 
ineffective, it is folly and sin to con- 
tinue their operation. The emperor 
of Russia, while showing a distin- 
guished visitor over his palace, was 
asked by the latter why a sentinel was 
placed on a small grass plot in the 



3f aults of tbe Cbutcb 17 

grounds. The emperor called his aide- 
de-camp and asked for information. 
This the latter was unable to give. 
The officer for the day was sent for, 
but he, too, was unable to enlighten 
the czar. ' ' Send me the general in 
command of the forces here," said the 
emperor. The general came, but could 
give no further information than that 
his orders were to post an armed senti- 
nel on that spot. "Investigate it, 
then," said the czar shortly, "and 
report the result to me." A long 
search in the military order-book re- 
vealed the fa6l that, eighty years ago, 
Catherine II., looking from a window 
in her apartment, had seen the first 
spring flower shoot up above the snow. 
She ordered a sentinel to be placed 
there in order to prevent any one 
from breaking the snowdrop. No one 
thought to countermand the order 
afterward, and so for eighty years a 
sentinel had kept watch on that very 



18 WLby dfcen fco not go to Gburcb 

spot; a human monument of blind, 
useless obedience to old orders and 
customs. Many a preacher stands 
within the courts of the church a sen- 
tinel over some withered flower of the 
past. 

That same czar, while going through 
his palace one day, noticed some re- 
pairs were being made, and, wishing 
to make inquiry, he beckoned to a 
workman near by, who immediately 
dropped his tools and approached the 
emperor. Before the latter could speak 
to him a rifle shot rang out, and the 
man fell dead. A hidden sentinel had 
not seen the emperor beckon, and, in 
accordance with orders to shoot any 
one coming unsummoned within 
twenty paces of the czar, he had killed 
the workman, whom he had suspedled 
of approaching the emperor for the 
purpose of murdering him. 

The man who is doing some new 
work in the kingdom of God, and 



ff aults of tbe Gburcb 19 

reaching the churchless and Christless 
men, is beckoned to the side of his 
Master to receive commendation, while 
the impulsive and shortsighted guard 
over antiquities tries to shoot him 
down. 

Galileo goes to a dungeon, but the 
world still moves. They place shack- 
les upon a Columbus, but ' ' Old 
Glory ' ' floats above the best part of 
the world. They send the greatest 
man in China up the Yellow river, but 
Western civilization moves on toward 
that ancient empire against all opposi- 
tion. 

The church for the times must meet 
the needs of the times. It must be of 
the Columbus spirit, and, with conse- 
crated determination, discover the new 
world. It will find the discord in the 
music of modern life, and bring it 
back to key-note and harmony. It 
will brave any storm, and sail any sea 
to reach the great continent of man's 



20 limbs jflfcen Oo not go to Gburcb 

needs, and to satisfy the longings in 
his heart. 

We have a Gospel, but we must 
study the intelligent application of 
that Gospel. The truth may be the 
same, and the need may be the same, 
but the method must change with the 
time. The change in the church build- 
ing ought to correspond with the 
changes in architecture. The idea of 
adaptiveness is always foremost in 
other buildings. A manufacturing 
building is made for manufacturing 
purposes. A store is arranged for its 
special trade. But the church has 
not always considered usefulness, or 
even attractiveness. Vast sums of 
money are used, but there is no light, 
no room, no ventilation, no brightness, 
no comfort; but a splendid echo and 
an everlasting shiver and sepulchral 
appearance. There are pillars and 
arches and shadows, but little religion 
and no people. There is an abundance 



Jfaults of tbe Cburcb 21 

of light and air and cheer and comfort 
in God's provisions, but not appropri- 
ated because of ecclesiastical blindness. 

An agonizing Methodist preacher 
cried out at a camp-meeting, ' ' There 
are souls being lost this very minute 
for want of more straw at the altar for 
the people to kneel on.'' There are 
men who are kept away from the 
church and from Christ by our in- 
attention to their comforts and their 
desires. 

The principle which lies at the 
foundation of every successful business 
is, ' ' Find out what men want and then 
give it to them. ' ' That same principle 
must enter largely into the success of 
the religious as well as the commercial 
enterprise. In so far as what they 
want is consistent with principle and 
propriety, give it to them. If the 
wants are not right, they should be 
changed instead of the method. Christ 
came sometimes where he was not 



22 HfflbE flben Do not go to Cburcb 

wanted. Great care is essential in dis- 
covering real want. One church says, 
' ' A- musical entertainment is the 
want," and they have failed in per- 
manently reaching men. One preacher 
declares, ' ' A ten-minute sermon is the 
want," and he signally fails. Man 
needs the right kind of a want, and 
the church needs the vision to discover 
it, and the genius and grace to satis- 
fy it. 

We have also to deal with the com- 
posite man, and not with the indi- 
vidual . The difficulties are increased by 
this facftor. There must be furnished 
attractive force for all kinds of men, 
and not for the personal characteristics 
of one man. If the church makes its 
plans to meet the wants of the edu- 
cated and the rich, and neglecfls the 
wants of the clerk and the mechanic, 
it is far from the ideal in the heart of 
the great head of the church. The 
deeper wants of all alike must be 



jfaulta or tbe Gburcb 23 

probed to their depths, and then 
studied and satisfied. There is some- 
thing in every man which causes him 
to be attracted to the place where the 
deeper wants are met. 

He is drawn to the church which 
in a business way adopts business 
principles for the accomplishment of 
its purpose. \ 

The financial element in the church- 
life is often disgusting to the man 
outside of the church. Many churches 
fail conspicuously in conducting their 
own finances. The churches are 
relatively few in which the subscrip- 
tions of members and other matters of 
business are looked after in a business- 
like manner. Some churches have 
paid their indebtedness thrice over in 
interest, when they were at any 
moment financially able to cancel it. 
Property has not been insured, and 
this carelessness and indifference, seen 
nowhere else in the world, are pub- 



24 TKIibg dften 60 not go to Cburcb 

lished everywhere concerning the 
church, and men have mocked it, and 
have felt it as a repulsive force. If 
this is a mere fraction in the problem, 
it is vital in its solution. The church 
must be condudled according to the 
righteous business principles of the 
world, if the men of the world are to 
seek its doors and its help. The 
methods which will bankrupt any 
store will have no mercy on the 
church. 

The commercial world has been 
completely revolutionized within a few 
years, but the church continues at the 
old stand, in the old way, and loses 
ground every year. The undertaker's 
sign still hangs upon it, and it looks 
like a vault for dead men, instead of a 
place to find life more abundant. 

The men of this age must have a 
church of this age, or they will pass 
by it. Do not condemn the man who 
lives up with the time, or ahead of it, 



jfaults of tbe Cburcb 25 * 

in the work of the church. He is its 
savior, and the men will be in his 
church, and he will not be mumbling 
words to a wood-yard. Many of the 
methods of the church are not the 
methods of the age, and men are look- 
ing at it as they do at any other 
" article of antiquity.' ' 

Make the church attradlive at any 
cost to ritualism or ceremony. Blot 
out Daudet's slur upon the church, 
"As dreary as a Protestant temple 
open once a week." Appropriate the 
inscription upon a Jewish synagogue 
in upper New York, which belongs 
only to the body of Christ, ' ' Congre- 
gation Gates of Hope. ' ' Wise methods 
are necessary, even if you have a 
Gospel. Better to bang a drum before 
men than a pulpit before empty pews. 

There was eledlricity everywhere, 
but Edison is a nineteenth century 
man to harness it. The force needs 
the right channel. 



26 WLby /nben Do not go to Cburcb 

Sunday finds the men of this day 
with Saturday still on them. They 
should be given Sunday things but 
in a Saturday way. They must be 
found where they live, and led to the 
church. The ideal service or sermon 
is the one which begins where men 
live and leads them to Christ. There 
is a great chasm between Saturday 
and Sunday, and, alas! too often be- 
tween the Sunday-morning newspapers 
and the church. This must be bridged 
by the successful preacher and the 
attractive service. A mere buttress of 
granite theology on his side of the 
chasm will not bring the people to his 
feet. They are not angels, and can 
not fly; nor are they saints and have 
the heroism to swim. They are simply 
men of the world and in the world, 
and wait for the ropes and rods and 
spans of helpfulness, and sympathy, 
and salvation to reach their side. 

Man is not disposed to be driven. 



ffaults ot tbe Cburcb 27 

There is something of the animal 
spirit in him. But he can be led. 
He is so deafened by the world's ma- 
chinery that he can not hear afar 
off. The sermon must begin where 
he is, and lead him unconsciously to 
Christ. 

Before this spirit in church and 
minister, rhetoric and science and 
philosophy, and even the familiar 
statement of theology, must give way. 
Men are after preachers and churches 
of this day with blood-earnest spirit. 
If the man in the pulpit unrolls his 
morocco case of sentences with one 
hand, and swings a palm-leaf fan in 
the other, every manly man passes 
that church and mocks him. His 
struggle after rhetoric is easily de- 
tected, and especially repulsive to men. 
It is more apt to please the delicate 
taste and refinement of women. There 
is value in rhetoric and polished sen- 
tence, if it is adapted to the truth and 



28 OTb£ dfcen &o not go to Cburcb 

the hearer, and is on fire with a holy 
enthusiasm. 

Men are drawn by earnestness and 
honesty and frankness, more than by 
the beauty and fragrance of flowers. 
Some men would rather pronounce 
every word right before empty pews, 
than one word wrong before a crowded 
house. They would rather die with 
their tinkling-cymbal essay in front of 
them, than to have men saved with- 
out it. 

A certain speaker who was remark- 
ably fastidious about his form of 
speech and pronunciation, was stand- 
ing on the wharf, when he slipped 
and fell into the water with a resound- 
ing splash. There were a number of 
people about, and among them an old 
lady, who shrieked as the gentleman 
disappeared, "He'll be drown-ded, 
he'll be drown-ded." Just then the 
water parted, and the head of the vic- 
tim of the accident appeared above the 



JFaults of tbe Gburcb 29 

surface, coughing and sputtering. He 
looked toward the agitated old lady 
and shouted, "Drowned, not drown- 
ded; drowned.'' His thought was 
not life, but pronunciation. 

It is reported that a stranger said 
to a seven year old boy in Boston, 
"Where is Boylston Street?" And 
the youthful Athenian replied, * 'While 
your mode of address, sir, seems to 
me to savor of undue, not to say un- 
warrantable familiarity, you shall have 
the information you seek. You will, 
perchance, descry, some distance up 
the street, an imposing structure of 
commingled renaissance and Venetian 
architecture. The street for which 
you inquire is immediately contigu- 
ous." Some preachers describe the 
way to Calvary with just as much 
vocabulary, and just as little sense 
as that. But the men in the pulpit 
who have crowded the pews with the 
men of the world, have always spoken 



30 mby jfl&en Do not go to Gburcb 

in their language, and with a holy 
desire to help them. 

A Spurgeon has always been ve- 
hement, plain speaking, and even 
humorous. He encouraged the des- 
pondent by sa}dng, ' ' Face it again like 
a man! Never say die." He com- 
pared some Christians to ' ' isolated 
icebergs," whom no body goes near, 
and who float about in a sea of forget- 
fulness, and added that "we shall be 
glad to meet them in heaven, but we 
are precious glad to get rid of them 
on earth." 

Every man in the history of the 
world, who has reached men, has 
adapted himself and his sermons to 
them and their needs. A minister 
preached before James I. of England, 
who was James VI. of Scotland. 
What subject did he take ? The king 
was noted all over the world for being 
unsettled and wavering in his ideas. 
What did the minister preach about 



3f aults of tbe Cburcb 31 

to this man, who was James I. of 
England, and James VI. of Scotland? 
He took for his text James i and 6: 
' ' He that wavereth is like a wave of 
the sea, driven with the wind and 
tossed.' ' This application of subject 
and language to the hearer has always 
been the characteristic of the victori- 
ous preacher. He has never been 
controlled by policy; he has always 
bowed beneath the scepter of princi- 
ple. Men can never be found in any 
church in great numbers, where the 
preacher is not governed by a holy 
boldness in his utterance of truth. If 
the man in the pulpit is shackled by 
the social customs, or business meth- 
ods, or miserly spirit, or worldly life 
of any members of his church, he has 
lost the last vestige of his drawing 
power. Men will only come to hear 
the unvarnished truth, red hot from 
a courageous heart. Some of these 
ten millions of men are outside of the 



32 mby dlben do not go to Cburcb 

church, because the truth, the whole 
truth, and nothing but the truth, is 
not fearlessly spoken. A man's ten- 
dency is to mock at policy, but always 
to admire principle. 

Thomas Carlyle looked at the 
church and the preacher and said, 
s ' This speaking man has, indeed, in 
these times, wandered terribly from 
the point; has, alas! as it were, totally 
lost sight of the point; yet, at bottom, 
whom have we to compare with him ? 
A man even professing, and never so 
languidly making still some endeavor, 
to save the souls of men. Contrast 
him with a man professing to do little 
but shoot the partridges of men. I 
wish he could find the point again, 
this speaking one ; and stick to it 
with tenacity, with deadly energy; for 
there is need of him }^et. Could he 
but find the point again, take the old 
spectacles off his nose, and looking 
up, discover almost in contadl with 



jfaults of tbe Gbutcb 33 

him, what the real Satanas and soul- 
devouring, world-devouring devil now 
is. Original sin and such-like are bad 
enough, I doubt not ; but distilled 
gin, dark ignorance, stupidity, dark 
corn-law, bastile and company, what 
are they ? 

' ' Will he discover our new real 
Satan whom he is to fight, or go on 
droning through his old nose specta- 
cles about old, extincft satans, and 
never see the real one till he feels 
him at his own throat and ours ? ' ' 

One of the characteristics of this 
age is its extreme practical tendency. 
Everything must have a definite ob- 
jedt, and every force must concentrate 
in its accomplishment. That which 
does not assume this practical attitude 
is discounted and passed unnoticed by 
men. Every truth uttered must have 
its pradlical bearing and a vital rela- 
tion to the present hour. Mere theories 
and theologies have lost their drawing 



34 TDOllxe d&en &o not go to Cburcb 

power. The demand for enthusiasm 
and earnestness is wedded in a holy 
matrimony to the demand for a prac- 
tical objedl and definite purpose. Ev- 
ery sermon and service and method 
must be indissolubly related to the 
supreme mission of the church, which 
is none other than the mission of the 
Son of Man, "To seek and to save 
that which was lost." No secondary 
element must be permitted to usurp 
the place of the primary. Education 
is good; philanthropy is good; culture 
is good; social improvement is good; 
the advance of civilization is good; but 
the church which retains its attractive 
force in the center of the thousands of 
lost men must keep at its center the 
crying and undying need of those men. 
One cause of the failure to reach them 
is the modern movement along tan- 
gent lines, instead of remaining un- 
moved in the Divine purpose at the 
very center where the cross has been 



jf ault5 of tbe Gburcb 



erecfted, as the pivotal point around 
which all the church machinery should 
revolve. In proportion as any church 
scatters its forces and its interests, it 
loses its grip upon men who are living 
in a world of specialists and control- 
ling motives. Consecration must be 
concentration if we win. The disposi- 
tions of men must be taken into account 
if they are reached. * ' Like seeks 
like." Their disposition is to fix a 
goal, and then, with a fighting and 
victorious will, remove obstacles, and 
strain every nerve and sinew to win. 
Theorizing amounts to very little in 
these days. It is the practical and the 
definite which are effective. The beau- 
tiful clouds of the morning are tinted 
with the most delicate coloring, but 
have no rain in them, and no blessing 
for a thirsty world. Such are rose 
theories. The false-dreaming, picture- 
painting, indefinite, impractical, ambi- 
tious preacher is the sounding brass, 



36 WLby d&en do not go to Cburcb 

before whom men thrust their fingers 
in their ears. 

It is the heart-beat which makes 
harmonious music. It is the clutch of 
Christ's purpose upon the church 
which holds men fast to itself. Men 
are not blind, nor are they altogether 
wicked, because they stay outside of 
the church; but they are after the 
church's Christ, and turn away when- 
ever they do not find Him. They 
reach the door, and, with a burning 
anxiety for satisfaction, they hear the 
cruel mockery of a mechanical choir, 
and the feeble strains of a few saints 
making discord with every note in 
heaven's music as they sing — 

" We are a garden walled around, 
Chosen and made, peculiar ground. 
A little spot enclosed by grace, 
Out of the world's wild wilderness." 

They turn away in disgust, with a 
poetic taste and a religious desire both 



jF aults of tbe Cburcb 37 

insulted. An unholy saintliness and 
exclusiveness in the center of elegance 
and ceremony is repulsive. The at- 
tractive church is forever the place of 
helpfulness and salvation. Men are 
not anxious to carry a bouquet home; 
they want a basket of food. Hungry 
souls are never satisfied with the fra- 
grance of pulpit flowers. 

A lady died of pneumonia from air- 
ing her room too much. "But that 
was a beautiful death." So said a 
woman whose fad was ventilation. 
She believed in carrying it even to 
the extreme of martyrdom. She was 
like a physician who had discovered 
a new method of operating for appen- 
dicitis. He was telling of twenty cases 
that he had treated. "Did they all 
get well ? ' ' asked a by-stander . * ' No ; 
they all died, but the operation was 
splendid, ' ' 

A colored preacher, whose fervid 
eloquence was highly prized by his 



38 TiaibE d&en So not go to Cburcb 

own people, was exhibiting the uni- 
formity of Christian experiences. He 
said: "We go to the tropics and we 
find a Christian, and we ask him, 
where were you born? And he re- 
plies: ' I was born in Zion.' " Then, 
after several intermediate stoppings in 
the temperate zone, asking the same 
question, and getting the same reply, 
he said: " Let us go to the north pole 
and climb up on it, and, looking down 
upon the people, we ask, where were 
you born? With one voice they re- 
ply: ' I was born in Zion.'" Thus 
far all was well. The enthusiasm had 
become intense, and even the more in- 
telligent portion of the audience could 
not hold down the prevailing emotion. 
If the orator had stopped it would 
have been well, but, intoxicated by 
his rhetorical success, and forgetful of 
the purpose of his pulpit, he soared 
too high and broke one of his wings, 
and killed his usefulness by shouting: 



jfaults of tbe Gburcb 39 

" Brethren, let us now go to de east 
pole. ' ' 

Many a preacher's wings have taken 
him too high for safety or salvation. 
Carlyle called the British parliament 
"a talking shop," and told General 
Wolseley that some day it might be his 
duty to lock it up, as Cromwell did. 
The hand of God has turned the key 
in the lock of some churches for the 
same reason. Human speech in the 
pulpit is one of the divinest gifts. The 
curse rests upon the man and the place 
which subverts its original purpose. 

A man in London, who had listened 
to preaching in St. Paul's for twenty 
years, thanked God that he was still a 
Christian; and well he might. This 
indirectness is the diredl path to the 
destruction of life and power. The 
most effectual way of hindering the 
progress of the Gospel is Satan's move- 
ment along the line of the impractical 
and indirect. 



40 7Hflb£ jflfcen 60 not go to Cburcb 

The world does not want for preach- 
ing, but is sorelv in need of the right 
kind. ' ' Words, words, words, ' ' without 
the heartburning purpose to save men, 
is one of the most impassable barriers 
before the church door. This wisdom 
of words has made the cross of Christ 
of none effedl. We are not in need of 
either brains or money. We are in 
need of the Gethsemane purpose. To 
gather a crowd temporarily is not the 
required success. A crowd may be 
drawn by a balloon ascension. There 
have been crowd-compelling, money- 
gathering Gospel balloons, but the 
balloon has burst, and the aeronaut has 
fallen into the ocean of his own ambi- 
tion, and his fellow-man's disgust. 
The most serious problem is not how 
to gather the men in great numbers, 
but how to keep them and to save 
them. The common people hear the 
Gospel gladly. It is new and old at 
once, and has a never-loosening grasp 



jfaults of tbe Cburcb 41 

upon all men. It is the chief yearning 
of every heart, and must be satisfied. 
There is a searching, deep and abiding, 
after God. L,et the church be the 
field where these diamonds of truth 
and righteousness are found, and eager 
men will hasten to enter its sacred 
enclosure. 

The spirit which ought to control 
the church is the spirit of the ship's 
captain who, when his son was in the 
water on one side of the boat, and fifty 
people on the other, had one life pre- 
server which would, however, bear 
several. He hesitated whether to 
throw it to his son, or on the other 
side where it might save many. He 
at last threw it where the larger 
number were struggling, and he 
jumped off the other side to save his 
son. They were both lost, but the 
life preserver saved six. The business 
of the church is not to save itself. Its 
expenditure of effort is usually along 



42 IKllbE dfcen 60 not go to Cburcb 

that line, and men on the outside 
understand it. Its business is, b} r the 
noblest sacrifice and by all means, to 
save others. 

It was Calvary upon Paul, which 
made him cry out, " I could wish my- 
self accursed for my brethren and 
kinsmen's sake." And it was that 
spirit by which Paul reached and saved 
men. This divinely ordained mission 
includes every man and all men, rich 
and poor, high and low. A mission 
chapel for the poor and a million- 
dollar church for a few of the rich 
is contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, 
and is food for the mockery of the 
world. The successful church and 
the New Testament church must 
forever be the cosmopolitan and 
democratic church. Let the rich and 
poor meet together, the Lord the 
maker of them all. Many a great 
church is only one-quarter filled to- 
day, and yet they are found building 



afaulte of tbe flburcb 43 

mission chapels. Men outside of the 
church are not deceived. They under- 
stand the controlling force behind 
granite walls, and priestly robes, and 
altar drapery. Break down the gates 
which have kept back the masses. 
Let the sound of Christ's voice be heard 
in the church and echo through the 
streets and into the churchless man's 
soul, " He hath anointed me to preach 
the Gospel to the poor. ' ' 

An old sailor went into a fashion- 
able church in one of our cities, and 
the doors of the pews were shut as 
he came up the aisles, and the church 
was filled with emptiness, neither 
men or Gospel being there. He passed 
up the aisle vainly looking for a seat. 
He was directed to a back row. He 
walked out and at the doorway asked 
the sexton what church it was. 
"Christ's," responded the sexton. 
"I guess he isn't here to-night,'' 
replied the sailor. 



44 WLby /Iften 60 not go to Cbutcb 

In an account of a church it was 
said there were a great many plain 
people. The next week the trustees 
of that church came out in the paper 
and said it was not so at all; the}' 
were elegant people and highly con- 
ditioned people that went there. Wo, 
wo, to that church which prides it- 
self upon the number of carriages 
waiting at its door. Such arrogance 
and inactivity and heathenism will 
receive an earthquake-shock from the 
justice of Almighty God. 

The men of the world have with a 
measure of justice shunned some of 
our churches as the gathering place of 
the holy hypocrites. Hypocrisy must 
be banished. Reality will be the only 
permanent attraction. If we are 
true to our principles at any cost to 
our sentiment or our comfort, men 
will push their way to our side. A 
church for the rich degenerates into a 
social club, and speedily dies. A 



ffaults of tbe Gburcb 45 

church for the poor can never be a 
success, because they need the presence 
of successful, prosperous, and refined 
people. The victorious church com- 
bines all elements in the spirit of the 
Christ. 

In our great cities, up- town has its 
church magnificence, and down-town 
has its church reminiscence. The 
population in the poor districts has in- 
creased by the thousands, while the 
churches have decreased for the thou- 
sands in a greater ratio. A gulf is 
fixed by traitorism to divinest truth. 
We have splendid buildings and able 
ministers and uncounted money, but 
we fail to reach the men, because we 
have run away from the place where 
most of the men live, and run away 
from the supreme mission of the 
church to seek and save the lost, and 
to recognize one of the lost to be just 
as valuable as the other. We discuss 
and mourn, but fail to act and remedy. 



46 TKUbE d&en do not go to Gburcb 

Man the life-boat; push it out into the 
wave and storm for Christ's sake and 
the sake of humanity, and the crowds 
will gather and cheer you on. 

The church is also weak in its 
power in this present day by allowing 
scholarly ambition and unholy criti- 
cism to destroy some of the founda- 
tions of its faith. The worst enemy is 
the one inside of the castle walls. 

Evolution as a substitute for the 
atonement has wrought untold injury. 
The atmosphere has been poisoned by 
this false theology. The press has 
carried it before the eyes of the men 
outside of the church, and they have 
read it and devoured it as a new sen- 
sation, but they have failed to digest 
it, and it has driven them from the 
church. Many of our best men are 
away from the church, because their 
minds have become saturated by this 
species of infidelity, the most serpent- 
like and deathly of all its kind. The 



jf aults of tbe Cburcb 47 

preacher who has so far forgotten his 
mission and the meaning of Calvary's 
blood, as to take the penknife of his 
own shallow wisdom, and display it de- 
fiantly in front of the Holy Spirit of 
inspiration, while he cuts the sacred 
page, has unwittingly cut human 
hearts, and their blood is upon his 
hands. False docftrine and human 
substitution are guilty beyond the 
power of expression, in causing the 
present condition in church life, and 
the absence of men from its services. 
They want the truth, the whole truth, 
and nothing but the truth; and that 
truth fresh as it came»from the hand 
of God, without one stain of human 
ignorance in the name of wisdom 
upon it. 

There is nothing the pew likes bet- 
ter than a positive theology, with its 
unvarnished application to the com- 
mon affairs of life. Nothing they care 
for less than the stilted icicle sentences 



48 WLby Men fco not go to Cburcb 

on Biblical criticism. Let question 
find its way into the popular mind and 
heart through some other channel 
than that of the pulpit. The shocks 
and sorrows and sins of life must be 
met, and the Biblical critic stands 
palsied before them. The old Bible, 
made to illustrate the life of this genera- 
tion, will always secure its hearers. 
It will have no rival in the attractions 
of the modern Sunday. Men will 
have none of the phraseology of dead 
dogmas. They want the living decla- 
ration of a living Gospel, and such a 
want can be satisfied by the highest 
intellectual capacity and the deepest 
spiritual life and the keenest insight 
into the feelings and needs of hu- 
manity. The Bible is not old. It is 
as new as the last sunbeam which 
kissed your cheek. Christ is our con- 
temporary. Give Him His place. 
Enthrone God's Word. Prodigal 
church, come back home. Preacher 



JFaults of tbe Cburcb 49 

of Christ, grasp the sword of the 
Spirit; it reaches hearts, slays pas- 
sions, condemns sin, saves men. ' ' Thus 
saith the Lord," is your most victo- 
rious cry. A faith which believes the 
Word of God is your righteous pos- 
session . When the prophets held their 
faith, they overturned whole cities. 
When the apostles believed, they rev- 
olutionized the world. The honey- 
combs of infidelity have sickened both 
the church and the world. The Word 
of God must be established in the 
hearts of men, if we have any au- 
thority over their lives. The cry over 
new things is only on the surface, and 
never can drown the deeper tones of 
the human heart. They were sur- 
prised when Aladdin went around 
crying, ' ' New lamps for old ones. ' ' 
They were glad enough to make the 
exchange. The new lamps were bright 
and clean. They thought the young 
man was a fool, of course, and they 



50 iUb>2 /ifeen £o not cjo to Cburcb 

were willing to profit by his folly. 
But he knew what he was about, and 
in due time he secured what he sought; 
that old magic lamp to which a mighty 
spirit was bound, that when the lamp 
was rubbed he had to come at once 
and give the owner whatever he asked. 
The legend illustrates the great truth, 
that many things are valuable because 
they are old. 

A man stopped at a book-stall one 
day, and in looking over the second- 
hand books there, found a copy of 
the first edition of Milton's "Para- 
dise Lost." He bought it for a 
shilling, but he would not sell it 
for many, many pounds, because he 
possessed one of the oldest and most 
prized copies. The new teaching 
flickers in its first moments of bright- 
ness, and then God snuffs it out. The 
old lamp of Divine truth has its flame 
kept burning by the resources of 
Heaven. It is the magic lamp which 



ffaults ot tbe Cburcb 51 

has in it a mighty spirit, and forever 
gives the world that for which it seeks 
most eagerly. The popular and endur- 
ing preacher has always been the one 
who held the Bible first against his 
own heart, and then pushed it lovingly 
out toward the hearts of other men. 
He has preached a Gospel which was 
not remelted and molded into the 
forms of human creed or policy by 
rationalistic interpretation . The great 
world is still after the fanatic who 
opens the Bible and reads, ' ' In the be- 
ginning God," and closes the Bible as 
he reads, ' ' The grace of the I^ord 
Jesus Christ be with you all." 

What the average man wants is a 
knowledge of the Scriptures, and what 
they teach concerning Christ and His 
great salvation. Higher or ''lower" 
criticism (mostly ''lower") have no 
satisfaction for his hungering and 
thirsting soul. Milton said truly, 
' ' The hungry sheep look up and are 



52 TClbE /Bben Do not go to Cburcb 

not fed. ' ' What the inspired Word of 
God has to say concerning them and 
their life here, and their hopes here- 
after, is of tremendous interest to them. 
Doubt in the pulpit is always out of 
place. He who twists the exclama- 
tion of the Gospel into a question- 
mark is a failure. The world has 
doubts enough of its own. It does 
not care to breathe that kind of poi- 
soned air from the church. It is faith 
and confidence and reality and truth 
which fasten themselves like mighty 
cords upon the hearts and lives of 
men. We have weakened our power 
by our interrogations and our paren- 
theses of skepticism. 

The effective force in any church, 
or in any man, is not his doubts, but 
his positive convictions. When cer- 
tainties constitute his message, he must 
be heard, and he will be heard. The 
child can detecft insincerity, and a man 
can not only detecil it, but will take 



jfaulte of tbe Cburcb 53 

the wings of his own conviclion and 
fly away from it. When the pulpit 
has been shaken in its confidence, and 
no longer rests on the eternal verities, 
and the critic's essay lies on the desk, 
and the Bible back on the stand, the 
world looks on and says: 

" The river Rhine, it is well known, 
Doth wash your city of Cologne; 
But tell me, nymphs, what power divine 
Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine?" 

Who will wash the critic? If the 
word blood has dropped out of his 
vocabulary, how can he say, "The 
blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleans- 
eth you from all sin. ' ' 

Men are not anxious to find a 
church where the word sin is not 
heard; where "hell" is translated 
into something softer and sweeter; 
where the atonement is not considered 
a necessity; where the Sermon on the 
Mount, and the Ten Commandments, 



54 WLby /Iften bo not so to Cbutcb 

and the Golden Rule are watered and 
weakened. The new world still wants 
the old Gospel. They may not want 
it in the old way, and in that, perhaps, 
lies the pulpit's grave defect. The 
ark of God was, and can now be, car- 
ried upon a new cart. The demand 
is for the Bible, not changed, but 
adapted. 

The most marvelous part of the 
American continent is the Yellowstone 
Park. It is a continuous miracle, a 
wonder of wonders, the amazement 
and rapture and inspiration of every 
traveler. Its scenety is captivating, 
and takes every man a prisoner. Let 
the pen of poet and the brush of artist 
do their best, and its grandeur and 
sublimity will not be compassed in 
their work. The Morans and Bier- 
stadts can paint enchanting pictures, 
but the canvas is incomplete. Its 
beauty and splendor must be seen to 
be known. You can describe some 



JFaulta of tbe Cburcb 55 

things, but you can not describe the 
throbbing, sobbing, groaning parox- 
ysm of the Yellowstone geysers. The 
matrimonial quarrelsome alliance of 
fire and water, and vapor and gas into 
a gallery of finest art, can not be told. 
The human eye must look down into 
the tinted and jeweled bosom of the 
morning-glory spring to know what 
the hand of Omnipotence can do. But 
the climax of sublimity and majesty, 
and grandeur and beauty, is crowded 
into one of the jeweled caskets of 
Heaven let down upon earth — the 
" Grand Canon." Here is art by an- 
gelic hand and masonry by the skilful 
trowel of Heaven. All the colors of 
earth fade before that coloring. It is 
a very avalanche of color — the min- 
gling of sunrise and sunset, and rain- 
bow and garden of earth, and all 
aglow with something heavenly. Here 
are thrones and teihples, and castles 
and fortifications of thousands of years 



56 TDdbE Albert bo not go to Cburcb 

standing, and ever touched with new 
beauty in form and color. You can 
talk about the walls of Heaven to a 
man after he has seen the sapphire 
and topaz, and jasper and amethyst, 
and twelve gates of pearl in the Grand 
Canon. This is the queen of all na- 
ture. The exquisite beauty of its sides 
are her robes. The river is like a 
narrow green ribbon, fastened as bind- 
ing to her skirts. The Yellowstone 
falls, with 350 feet of plunge, is the 
music of her voice. The giant cliffs 
and emerald trees are her attendants. 
The eagles of vidlory are perched upon 
her banners, and the whole world bows 
beneath the swing of her scepter. The 
characteristic of this part of our con- 
tinent, and the world, is that it is 
unique, and stands alone in the larger 
part of its wonder and its beauty. You 
never saw some things until you saw 
them in Yellowstone Park. You never 
even saw red or purple, or orange, 



3f aults of tbe Cburcb 57 

until you saw them there. Thus it is 
with the Bible in the world's literature 
and morality, and religion and life 
You never saw some things until you 
saw them there. It stands unique and 
alone. There are other systems of 
morality, but this is the ' ' Grand 
Canon.' ' There are other monumen- 
tal pieces of literature, but not to be 
compared with this. There are frag- 
ments of truth, but here is the combi- 
nation of all truth. Man never saw 
morality till he saw it here. He never 
saw the fatherhood of God, till he saw 
it here. He never saw the brother- 
hood of man, till he saw it here. He 
never saw the incarnation, till he saw it 
here. He never saw the resurrection, 
till he saw it here. He never saw the 
atonement, till he saw it here. He 
never saw redemption, till he saw it 
here. He never saw the defeat of all 
sin, and the triumph of righteousness, 
till he saw it here. Here is the world's 



58 WbE dften bo not go to Gburcb 

hope. Before it men will forever stand 
amazed, enraptured, and inspired. It 
must be recognized, and kept as the 
magnet of drawing power; but Chris- 
tian truth must find its illustration in 
Christian living. 

A Chinese preacher who received 
twenty- two dollars a month, refused 
the position of consul at fifty dollars, 
in order that he might remain and 
preach the Gospel to his countrymen, 
who said of him, "There is no differ- 
ence between him and the Book." 
That is a tribute which the church of 
to-day needs for its support. It ranks 
with that splendid characterization of 
the noble Judson, "There goes Jesus 
Christ's man." Churches will be 
crowded with men when there is no 
difference between Christians and the 
Book. 

Christ said, "And I, if I be lifted 
up, will draw all men unto me." He 
is best lifted up before the eyes of 



ffaults of tbe Cburcb 59 

men in the lives of his people. We 
have been making an unwarrantable 
distinction between the secular and the 
sacred ; an unjustifiable separation 
between Saturday and Sunday. There 
is no great chasm, it is a mere tick 
of the clock. There is no sugges- 
tion that Christ ever made any dis- 
tinction between a Christian's reli- 
gious and secular life; but He affirmed 
and reiterated, that the Christian 
should do everything before the 
eyes of men with the religious spirit. 
Christ thrust His men into the every- 
day world. His incarnation was the 
secularization of divinity, but he was 
never anything else than the Christ. 
A large part of the influence of the 
church depends upon the manifesta- 
tion of this life-giving power in the 
membership of the church. Every 
man has an inborn admiration for 
character, which has an unequaled 
drawing force. Let the church stand 



60 TObs /Ifcen fco not go to Cburcb 

before the world as an embodiment of 
character, and it will not only receive 
worldly admiration, but it will com- 
mand the attendance and the support of 
men. An unquestioned weakness exists 
in the poor representation of the prin- 
ciples of Christianity. Men are saying 
of everything in this day, " What can 
it do? Not what is your theory, but 
what can it do ? " That same ques- 
tion is bombarding the church and, 
alas ! alas ! breaking down some of 
its old walls. Many of the leading 
business as well as professional men 
of our country are church commu- 
nicants. A large number of them 
have separated their own business 
from the Iyord's business by an earthly 
divorce law, and do not carry their 
religion into their occupation, and 
reveal the Christian spirit in every- 
day life. One of the most pressing 
needs in the church is seven-day 
Christianity. Speech is easy, even 



jfaults of tbe Gbutcb 61 

profession is not difficult; but charac- 
ter is costly, and it is that which is 
most valuable to the church in reach- 
ing the men. The eyes of the world 
are looking for a difference between 
the man in the church and the man 
outside of it. They have a right to 
find it. The church ought to demand 
its visible existence. It is a glittering 
fallacy, but nevertheless a black- 
hearted one, which declares that we 
must bring the church into the world 
and the world into the church in order 
to reach the unchurched. We have 
already gone too far in that direction, 
and have lost power every step of 
that crooked path. * ' Come ye out, 
and be ye separate/' has never been 
taken away from the list of divine 
commands. A separated church and 
not a worldly church will accomplish 
God's desire. Weakness can never 
become power. Strength of charadler 
will alone be the requisite force. We 



62 Tisubs tf&en &o not go to Cburcb 

need more church discipline, and not 
less of it. It is the reasoning of in- 
sanity to suppose that men will be 
drawn to a church w r hich nominally 
stands for righteousness and yet per- 
mits sin and worldliness to control 
its life. The church must take some 
men out of its membership, if it would 
put other men into its pews. It is the 
men of the church who represent the 
church to the men of the world. The 
need is not so much a costly structure, 
or an elaborate service, as it is the 
Christ- like character. The religious 
life of the church member must be 
deep enough to spread itself over the 
seven days of the week, as well as the 
hour of church service on Sunday. 
With all the faults of this age, it 
admires reality and hates ' ( cant ' ' and 
hypocrisy. It does not ask the 
church to cut the Ten Commandments 
and the Sermon on the Mount, and the 
golden rule out of its Bible, but it 



ffaulte of tfoe Cburcb 63 

demands that the church representa- 
tive shall reveal them in his life. The 
man outside turns away from the 
Pharisee who prays with a loud voice, 
( * I am better than my fellowman, ' ' 
and then breaks every law in the 
divine catalogue. The life must corre- 
spond better with the creed. The fault 
lies not so much in the doctrine, or the 
sermon, or the service, as it does in 
the life. 

"And so the Word hath breath, and 
wrought 
With human hands the creed of creeds, 
In loveliness of perfect deeds, 
More strong than are poetic thought. 

"Which he may read that binds the sheaf, 
Or builds the home or digs the grave, 
Or those wild eyes that watch the wave, 
In roarings round the coral reef." 

The wires of Christian character 
must be stretched between the church 
and the world, if men are to recognize 



64 TOb£ jflfcen Do not go to Gbutcb 

its power and rejoice in its life. This 
contadl is positively essential. 

The poor and the rich alike can be 
drawn toward the church by the 
greatest power in the world — the 
human touch. 

"There where, in London, the Hoi- 
born is flung over another street in 
the neighborhood of St. Paul's Cathe- 
dral, the viadudl is supported on lofty 
arches, and at night are gathered 
there, in those roomy, dry recesses, 
the riffraff of that part of the great 
metropolis — thieves, those flying from 
justice, and even homeless little boys. 

' ' When the great clock of St. Paul's 
has boomed the stroke of midnight, 
and the arches are filled with these 
poor people, there approaches a tall, 
thin gentleman, with a lantern and 
one or two assistants, who go from 
arch to arch and group to group; and 
while many flee, they gather by morn- 
ing, thirty or forty hungry, ragged 



Jf aults of tbe Gburcb 65 

children into a room pleasantly lighted, 
and there the gentleman feeds and 
clothes them ; and, having fed and 
clothed them, tells them of the Lord 
and Savior Jesus Christ. And so he 
spends his nights, robbing his sleep of 
its allotted time. His friends remon- 
strate, but he answers : 

* ' ' My heart is breaking with agony 
for my poor boys.' 

' ' Who is this man ? He has in his 
veins the bluest blood of the British 
aristocracy; he is the Earl of Shaftes- 
bury, who leaves his palace at the 
West End to dig amid the filth and 
squalor of these recesses of Holborn 
Viaduct, to find the boys whom he can 
save for Jesus Christ's sake." 

And then there were the coster- 
mongers. They would not receive 
help from Lord Shaftesbury; they 
said he was too proud and his blood 
was too blue. So the Earl of Shaftes- 
bury brought himself down to them. 



66 TKHbE Men £>o not go to Gburcb 

He became a costermonger, with cart 
and donkey, and with his crest em- 
blazoned on the harness. When they 
saw that they said, ' ' Lord Shaftesbury 
stands with us ; he shall help us. " 
And he did. ' ' And he came and 
touched the bier." 

1 ' When did your reformation be- 
gin ? " a gentleman asked a Christian 
man who had formerly been a great 
criminal. 

"With my talk with the earl/' 
(Shaftesbury, noted for his devotion 
to discharged criminals) . 

' ' What did the earl say ? ' ' 

' ' It was not so much anything he 
said, but he took my hand in his and 
said, 'Jack, you'll be a man yet.' It 
was the touch of his hand, electrified 
by his soul of love." 

Men are everywhere in sin and 
despair. Yes, long ago they went 
away from God. Down into the 
depths they plunged. Now all is lost. 



ffaults of tbe Cburcb 67 

Purity is gone. Courage is gone. 
Faith is gone. Hope flickers but 
feebly. They could be saved if some 
one would only show them compas- 
sion. Stretch out your hand and 
rescue them by a touch of love! 

Organizations and machinery can 
never take the place of a " Shaftes^ 
bury." That personal touch is like 
the hand of Christ upon the blind eye, 
and makes it see a new world. We 
can never afford to neglect this in all 
our emphasis upon methods and at- 
tractions, because it is fundamental in 
the work of reaching men. Here lies 
the responsibility and the ability of 
the layman. He must stand between 
the church and the world, and must 
always stand lovingly and courage- 
ously for his faith. He will command 
the respect of his fellows, and they 
will search for his church. 

At a banquet of the Bar Association 
of Boston, not long ago, the presiding 



68 TlOlbE dfcen So not go to Cburcb 

officer indulged in some cheap flings 
at the dodlrine of Providence. He 
was followed by a judge of the State 
of Massachusetts, who spoke in the 
same strain. He, in turn, was fol- 
lowed by one of the most distinguished 
justices of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, who very quietly, very 
modestly, but very firmly, confessed 
his faith in the constant and beneficent 
Providence of God. Said my inform- 
ant, ' ' The audience was hushed in an 
instant; and you could have heard a 
pin drop." 

A distinguished United States sena- 
tor was recently delivering an address 
at a gathering of the nation's officials, 
when he gave a most beautiful tribute 
to the Lord Jesus as his own per- 
sonal Savior. There was death-stillness 
and an evident admiration. Every 
man and every newspaper declared 
his a magnificent address, and the 
greatest of the occasion. He was un- 



ffaults of tbe Cburcb 



consciously bringing men into the 
church of his Christ. 

When Commodore Philip, on the 
battleship Texas, uncovered his head, 
as a Christian, in recognition of what 
God had wrought, he drew every man 
in this country toward the church 
doors. What the pulpit professional- 
ism fails to do, this unseen and often- 
times unrecognized force accomplishes. 
The greatest obligation after all rests 
upon the man who is already in the 
church. He has no right to find fault 
with the preacher's lack of attractive 
power, as long as his own life is so un- 
attradlive. 

Distance between the church and 
the men of to-day is also created by 
the lack of real living brotherhood in 
the church life. 

Some of the world's organizations 
can at least, with a degree of justice, 
point the finger of scorn in the direc- 
tion of the church organization. They 



70 TDClbs jflfcen fco not go to Cburcb 

declare that they love each other bet- 
ter, and help each other more, than 
the men of the church do. It is un- 
questionably true that philanthropic 
and social reform were once the chil- 
dren of the church, while now they 
have almost entirely become sciences 
by themselves. They ought to have 
been kept as a vital part of the church. 
They were born in her principles 
and rocked in the cradle of her early 
and triumphant days. One of the 
root causes of failure lies in the in- 
ability to recognize the importance of 
our social obligations and our social 
opportunity. We ought to see the 
nature and necessity of men, and lay 
a brotherly hand upon them and their 
society. By other means we may 
bring them within the church occa- 
sionally, but by this means only can 
we keep them. The church has no 
longer the power of a hierarchy, but 
its social power is now its golden op- 



Jfaults of tbe Cburcb 71 

portunity. This is the day of brother- 
hood, and not of priestly officialism. 
The church has been too individual- 
istic. It has been dealing with the 
microscope, and has forgotten the use 
of the telescope. It needs a larger 
horizon. It has a social and philan- 
thropic mission. 

We have been singing, ' ' In the 
Sweet By and By." We need a new 
hymn, with better music: "In the 
Sinful Here and Now." Christ 
claimed the kingdoms of this world, 
even if He did refuse to take them 
upon Satan's conditions. The minis- 
ter's education is defective who be- 
lieves that his vocation is purely spiri- 
tual, and that he has no duty to per- 
form in the improvement of the present 
world. His special business is to save 
souls; but one of the channels for the 
accomplishment of this purpose may 
be in the solution of economical and 
political problems. If he studies his 



72 TObE flfcen &o not go to Gburcb 

Bible one hour, he might profitably 
take one-half of that hour in its appli- 
cation to the great social issues of the 
day. He might as well build his 
church around the north pole, and 
write his sermon with the point of an 
icicle, if he does not enter into the 
wrongs and the sorrows of the poor, 
and also into the justification of the 
righteous rich. 

The Earl of Shaftesbury said: "I 
find that evangelical religionists are 
not those on whom I can rely. The 
fadlory question, and every question 
for what is called ■ humanity/ receives 
as much support from the ' men of 
the world, ' as from men who say they 
will have nothing to do with it. No 
stir as yet in behalf of my ' children's 
employment commission.' I can not 
discern how, humanly speaking, I have 
ever made any progress at all. To 
whom should I have naturally looked 
for the chief aid ? Why, undoubtedly, 



3Fault5 of tbe Cburcb 73 

to the clergy, and especially those of 
the trading districts. Quite the re- 
verse; from them I have received no 
support, or next to none; one or two, 
in their individual capacity, have given 
me encouragement, and wished me 
godspeed, but as a body, or even 
numerously, tho singly, they have 
done, are doing, and will do nothing. 
And this throughout my whole career. 
There are grand and blessed excep- 
tions; thank God for them! . . . 

4 1 1 find as usual the clergy are, in 
many cases, frigid; in some few hos- 
tile. So it has ever been with me. 
At first I could get none, at last I have 
obtained a few, but how miserable a 
proportion of the entire class! The 
ecclesiastics as a mass are, perhaps, as 
good as they can be under any insti- 
tution of things where human nature 
can have full swing; but they are 
timid, time-serving, and great wor- 
shipers of wealth and power. I can 



74 MbE dfcen 60 not 30 to Cburcb 

scarcely remember an instance in 
which a clergyman has been found to 
maintain the cause of laborers in the 
face of pewholders." 

There are modern Philistines in 
trusts and monopolies, and in labor or- 
ganizations, which the chosen people 
of God must courageously fight, if 
they keep their own safety and com- 
mand the respedl of the world. There 
ought also to be a better care exercised 
toward the membership of the Chris- 
tian family. ' ( Our church home ' ' is 
the best name for the church. The 
family idea, and the home atmosphere, 
and the fireside interest, and the help- 
fulness of an undying love, are ele- 
ments of power. We have had a very 
kind solicitude, oftentimes, for the 
well-being of those in darkest Africa, 
and darkest England, and darkest 
New York, but have negledled the 
first responsibility toward those of the 
' ' household of faith. ' ' Christian ex- 



JFaults of tbe Cburcb 75 

ample must be emphasized, but it has 
its application to the life of the Chris- 
tian society, and to the local church as 
well as to the individual. Much of 
the inspired teaching bears upon the 
relation of disciples to each other. 
The effort was to be the making of an 
ideal societ}^ in each church. That 
was the dream of the early church, and 
therein may be found a large part of 
its wonderful strength. If the i ' house- 
hold of faith ' ' was filled with helpful- 
ness, and justice, and love, and 
brotherly kindness, and consideration, 
how the world, struggling after better 
social conditions, would be drawn 
towards it! A Christian society in 
the church is the divine method of 
reaching the world. It is God' s leaven 
which will ultimately transform human 
society. A church quarrel means 
empty pews. Coldness in the church 
life places dying embers on the hearth, 
and a shivering world surrounds other 



76 THlbE jflften 60 not go to Cburcb 

firesides to find warmth and love. 
Christian sympathy and brotherhood 
is the most powerful heater in the 
world. It changes the Arctic zone 
into the tropics. If a church is a 
floating iceberg, every man shouts to 
every other man, "Keep out of its 
way." He may be drowning, but 
will make his death-struggle to get 
away from its coldness and its helpless- 
ness. Many churches are refriger- 
ators. The church army has gone 
into winter quarters. 

The cold world wants warm words, 
warm smiles, warm welcomes, warm 
hearts, warm prayers, and the warm 
atmosphere of the brotherhood of man 
in the place where they teach the 
fatherhood of God. There is another 
evil related to this one, or rather an 
expansion of it, in the lack of the 
brotherly relation, and of coopera- 
tion between the various churches. 
The world is not schooled in dodlrinal 



JFaults ot tbe Cburcb 77 

distinctions, and can not easily recog- 
nize the necessity for church separa- 
tion, and sometimes church opposition. 
No period in the world's history has 
witnessed more significant changes 
than this age in which we live. The 
tendency of the time in the political 
and business world alike is unques- 
tionably toward consolidation and 
centralization and cooperation. The 
man who fails to recognize this, fails 
in his undertaking. The church which 
fails to adapt itself to this characteristic 
of the age, must also fail to reach the 
men of this age. Cooperation must be 
one of the watchwords of the church in 
the dawning hour of the twentieth cen- 
tury. Organizations have been mul- 
tiplied, and even different denomina- 
tions separated into more divisions, 
and religious efforts have been scat- 
tered and weakened, and fields have 
been negledled while others have been 
crowded, and no great and united 



78 WLbv d&en &o not go to Cburcb 

effort has been made toward coopera- 
tion in spending money and utilizing 
effort to reach men. Denominations 
with vital principles should live, and 
can live, even if we destroy sectarian- 
ism and bigotry. 

What defeat we would have experi- 
enced if our battle-ships in the Pacific, 
or in the Atlantic, had turned their 
guns upon each other instead of the 
enemy. The church has been guilty 
of this weakness and folly, but is open- 
ing its eyes to-day toward the enemy 
and the necessity of cooperation. 

At the charge of Fort Donaldson, in 
the late war, the enemy's works had 
been attacked many times by the dif- 
ferent companies. At last, wearied 
of their fruitless efforts, the Union 
forces for the most part massed them- 
selves at the foot of the hill, and ad- 
vanced together. They came on in 
such numbers, and with unbroken 
lines, that nothing could withstand 



jFaults of tbe Cburcb 79 

their progress. They gained the 
heights, and, united, won a vidtory 
which their divided forces could never 
have obtained. 

Division has driven men away from 
the church, and wherever it exists to- 
day it breeds disgust. People are 
afraid of a riot, and they will go 
around an entire block to get out of 
its way. The church must under- 
stand that principle. The necessity 
is for a growing recognition of the 
good in all denominations, and that 
which is fundamental in dodlrines and 
life, and which is common to all. 
There is a basis in our Christianity 
upon which we all can work. There 
is a center around which we all can 
move. The cross is the important 
point, and all emphasis can be safely 
and harmoniously given to that. Our 
real force in church aggressiveness to- 
day is largely denominational rather 
than Christian, Organizations are 



80 7KHbi2 Men fco not go to Cburcb 

multiplied on some fields, while time 
and money are wasted, and men are 
not reached. All denominations 
should get together as business con- 
cerns, and in the spirit of the age 
map out the work and utilize the force. 
That may be an ideal of the future, 
but it should be the goal toward which 
every conscientious, consecrated, earn- 
est Christian man and church is striv- 
ing. Men are drawn toward great 
institutions and great enterprises. We 
need great centers of life and activity, 
and at least in village and city alike 
there should be cooperation and the 
concentration of effort in the accom- 
plishment of the one supreme purpose. 
Denominations need not mean less, but 
Christianity should mean more. Tem- 
porary prosperity of the individual 
church need not mean less, but the 
reaching and saving of these ten mil- 
lions of men should mean more. 

In our effort to enter into the 



JFaults of tbe Cburcb 81 

spirit of the age, we need a con- 
stant reminder of that more important 
1 * spirit ' ' of power. We may not need 
the institutional church as much as 
the inspirational. * ' It is by my spirit, ' ' 
saith the IyOrd. No human agency 
can ever supplant the fundlion of the 
Holy Spirit in the work of reaching 
men. Methods and agencies may touch 
the man outwardly, but are thwarted 
in the most important work. They 
are only auxiliaries. Philanthropy 
and education and culture may be ac- 
complished by the merely human ele- 
ment, but the higher and better, and 
eternal and spiritual impulses depend 
upon the work of the Holy Spirit; and 
in ignoring this lies the secret of the 
failure in many, and apparently earn- 
est, adtive, and attractive churches. 
It was after the descent of the Holy 
Spirit in the early church that the five 
thousand men, besides women, came 
into its life. The present growth of 



82 WLby Aen fco not go to Cburcb 

modern methods in church work, with 
so much emphasis placed upon their 
relation to this present life, make more 
important the deepening of the spiri- 
tual life. The extension ought to cor- 
respond with the intention. Widening 
and deepening should be proportion- 
ate. If the past preacher and method 
have been too ' c other worldly, ' ' the 
pendulum should not be allowed to 
swing too far. All church machinery 
must be run by the Spirit of God. 
This distinction between the church 
and other organizations should be en- 
larged rather than obliterated. It is 
neither knowledge nor machine that 
the church needs so much, after all, as 
the holy fire which is power. Educa- 
tion is nothing without inspiration. 
Christian activities are useless when 
they are not the outcome of spiritual 
life. Some of our most enthusiastic 
enterprises are separated from the root 
of their life, and they soon wither and 



aulte ot tbe Cburcb 83 

die. Improved methods of agriculture 
do not remove the necessity for toil; 
they simply bring larger returns. It 
does not make any difference whether 
it is a steam-plow or crooked handles 
for the calloused and bruised hand of 
the farmer. The harvests depend upon 
obedience to the laws of God which 
grip the world. As the machinery 
does not dispense with the toil, neither 
can any church organization dispense 
with the necessity for the cooperation 
of the Holy Spirit. 

The man of the world does not stay 
away from the church because it has 
too much of the Spirit of God, but 
because it has too little. It is a false 
impression to suppose that the Holy 
Ghost is a repulsive force to men of 
the world. The church which has a 
sham sanctity, and is too pharisaical 
to touch the world, may repel men, 
but what a sad mistake to make the 
Spirit of God responsible for an ele- 



84 WLbv jflfcen So not go to Cburcb 

ment of heathenism dressed in the 
garments of the Gospel. We can 
neither invent right things, nor under- 
take great things, unless it is done 
under the inspiration of the Holy 
Spirit. With His power, let us dare 
to attempt heroic things for Christ, 
and the manliness of the world will be 
with us. The church is dependent 
upon the Holy Spirit for its courage, 
and the men of the world are always 
drawn toward the manifestation of the 
heroic. It is the revelation of the 
vitality and reality of the Christian 
faith. It was the audacity of the 
faith of Pentecost which reached the 
men. 

Leonardo da Vinci, the great painter, 
was once employed by the emperor to 
produce a picture, which was to be 
finished by a certain date. After 
working some time at his task, how- 
ever, the artist absented himself from 
his studio for a week or more, doing 



jfaults of tbe Cburcb 85 

apparently nothing toward complet- 
ing the picture. The emperor hearing 
of this sent a courtier to remonstrate 
with the painter, and, when the latter 
did not heed the remonstrance, com- 
manded him to come into the royal 
presence. 

" Why have you negledled the 
painting of the pidlure we have or- 
dered, and which it is urgent shall be 
soon finished ? ' ' was the question 
sternly put to the artist. 

" I have not negledled it, sire," was 
the answer. 

* ' But we know that you have not 
had brush in hand these eight days," 
said the wondering emperor. 

"True, sire," said the artist, "but 
nevertheless the pidlure has grown. 
The work of the brush is the least to 
be done in producing a painting. The 
last week I have been away from my 
studio, it is true, but wherever I went 
that pidlure has been in my mind, and 



86 TOb$ /llben Do not go to Gburcb 

slowly, steadily, I have been getting 
in place the figures to be put upon the 
canvas. The picfture, sire, will be 
done at the stated time." 

And it was. And this pidture is 
to-day regarded as the greatest work 
of the famous painter. 

We can not go carelessly into our 
great work, if we would go victori- 
ously. It was ' ' tarry ye ' ' before 
1 * S° Y e - " It is the earthly mission 
of the Divine Spirit to furnish plans 
and make them effective by the use of 
consecrated hearts. Oh ! church of 
Christ, lay thy left hand upon the 
altar, and thy right hand on the arm 
of God. 



ff aults of tbe /Ifcan 87 



II 

THE FAUI/TS OF THE MAN 

A ix men are the sons of the original 
Adam, and every drop of their 
blood still carries that early manifested 
tendency to shackle the blame to 
somebody or something, other than 
self. We must be just and look at 
this other apple, and discover his fin- 
ger-marks upon it, and the print of 
his teeth in it, and hear the smack of 
his lips over imaginary sweetness in 
neglected duty. He is away from the 
church because of something within 
his own heart and life, as much as any 
reason within the church itself. In 
his anxiety for excuses, he should not 
be blind to his own faults. The 
church must bear its share of the re- 



88 TOibg dfcen 60 not qo to Cbutcb 

sponsibility, but his shoulders may 
bend beneath the greater burden. 

The church and its claims upon 
every man are not mere incidentals in 
human life. They supply an ever 
present and ever pressing necessity. 
The reason for negledl of worship is 
not found in a decrease of religious 
nature. There is and there can be no 
less of that element in man. It is an 
inborn necessity. It is as dependent 
upon laws as the physical wants of the 
human organization. It is a vital part 
of the man, and can not be destroyed, 
even if negledled. It may be dwarfed, 
but its demands for recognition and 
satisfaction can not be silenced. He 
knows little of his own nature, and 
has taken very superficial views of his 
world, who regards religion and wor- 
ship and the church as something not 
essential to his best interests and the 
fulfilment of his most sacred duty. 
There are men with a certain element 



JFaults of tbe /Iftan 



of goodness in them, and a practise of 
legal morality in their lives, who do 
not yield assent to dogmas or acknowl- 
edge the need of worship. If they are 
honest in regard to the dogma, they 
may not be blamed; but in regard to 
the worship of God, and the relation 
to his church, they commit a grievous 
wrong against their highest nature, 
and have less of the best elements of 
noble character and manhood than 
they might have. 

The worshiping faculty is in man 
the same as his other faculties, and is 
the ultimate and climax of them all. 
His other faculties have their correlate 
in the world. The voice has the air. 
The foot has the solid earth. Hunger 
has the food. Thirst has the water. 
So in this highest of all his faculties, 
he finds its correlate in God, and an 
undying necessity for its satisfaction. 

John Stuart Mill was one of the 
greatest men, and had one of the 



90 TKHb£ /ifoen fco not go to Cburcb 

greatest minds of any man in his own 
age, or in any other age, and yet he 
did not worship God. His early life 
and his father's blood and his educa- 
tion had all drawn him away from the 
church. He tried to kill all faith, and 
became a mere reasoning machine, 
yet he was not able to destroy the 
demand for something to worship. 
He eulogized his own wife, until he 
declared that she combined all the 
qualities of perfection, and he wor- 
shiped her. She was his ideal. Those 
seven and one-half years were the 
only happy years of his life. When 
she died the light of his life went out, 
and he made frequent pilgrimages to 
her grave in the south of France to 
worship her memory. There was never 
a sadder closing in mortal life than in 
his. In his attempt to destroy a relig- 
ious nature, the poison made the cup 
of his life too bitter to drink. There 
are those who declare that religion 



jf aults of tbe /llban 91 

belongs to the childhood of the human 
family ; in its manhood religion has 
ceased to be a necessity. That is not 
true. It was a part of the breath of 
life, which was breathed into the 
nostrils of the first man. It is ele- 
mental in his nature. The God who 
has provided for the wants of all his 
creatures, has not disappointed the 
rational expectation of a provision for 
this noblest and highest of all needs. 
The spiritual need finds its wants met 
in Christianity, and the worship in 
the Christian church. 

' ' Why men do not attend church, ' ' 
can not find its answer in his lack of 
religious nature, or its demands upon 
him. 

This problem can not be solved by 
the shallow and often repeated declara- 
tion, that he has lost his respedl for 
the church and the minister. It is 
constantly affirmed with a variety of 
manufactured illustrations, that men 



92 limbs d&en &o not go to Cburcb 

do not hesitate to say, " We do not 
care for the church, but we do care 
for Christ. ' ' As many of the striking 
illustrations are not true, so this strik- 
ing statement, whenever made, is not 
true. It may be an excuse which 
furnishes temporary relief to a dis- 
turbed conscience, but can never be 
stamped as a reason for the negledl of 
one of life's duties. Every true man 
in his best moments of clearest 
thought, and purest heart, respedls 
the church, and never more than in 
this present hour ; nor is he opposed 
to the thousands of men in the min- 
istry who are giving consecrated ser- 
vice for the relief of a world's suffer- 
ing and sorrow, and for the elevation 
of men and the regeneration of society. 
With all the faults of the church he 
recognizes its great work. He knows 
its faults are upon the surface, and 
its inner life is still for his good and 
for the good of his fellow men. He 



jFaults of tbe dlban 



has not altogether lost respedl for nor 
faith in the church. The church is 
still Christ's body, and admiration for 
Him can not be so easily divorced 
from respedl for His body. There 
may be human marks upon it, but in 
its essential features even the eyes of 
the world see something of Him. 
This loss of respedl for the church 
and the minister is less of a fadlor in 
the solution of the problem, than 
the shallow surface view would have 
us think. Christ was never more 
admired by the world than to-day, 
and His church never commanded 
more respedl than to-day. The man's 
absence from church is not and can 
not be always attributed to his con- 
demnation of the church, while he 
still retains his admiration for Christ. 
His fault lies in his misunderstand- 
ing of the spirit of the church. He 
has been educated to believe that the 
church is a class institution, existing 



94 TICibE diben Do not 00 to Gburcb 

only for its own kind, and those the 
select few. With a heart ready to be- 
lieve it, he has been told that they do 
not want him. The exception, if 
there is one, has been made the rule 
under such false instruction. With 
this abiding impression he takes it for 
granted that all churches are cold and 
indifferent to his interests, and have 
no warm welcome for him to their 
services. This is a misrepresentation 
of blackest color, and he has not even 
occasionally investigated its truth. It 
leaves him asleep on Sunday morning, 
and leaves the church empty, and fur- 
nishes a very satisfactory condition of 
things for a lazy, irreligious man. The 
fact in the case is that most every 
church is extremely anxious to have 
worshipers fill its pews. They are 
making vast expenditures for no other 
purpose in the world save this one. 
Money and effort and time beyond all 
computation are lavishly given to ur- 



JFaulte ot tbe /Iftan 95 

gently invite men into the church. 
The rarest exception in this day is a 
cold hand at the outside door, and a 
lock upon the pew door. A man has 
recently made a most thorough inves- 
tigation of the welcome given to 
strangers in our churches. He cal- 
loused his hands by the laboring man's 
toil, and clothed himself in the laboring 
man's garments, and marked himself 
as one of the poorest, and then visited 
the largest and richest churches in our 
great cities; and after this severe test 
he writes: " Never once did I fail of a 
friendly greeting. In the vestibule I 
always found young men, who adled 
as ushers, and who were charged with 
the duty of receiving strangers. With 
every test I felt increasingly the diffi- 
culties of the situation for these young 
men, and my wonder grew at their 
graceful tadlfulness. A touch of the 
patronizing in their tone, or any marked 
effusiveness of cordiality, would have 



96 mby jfflben Do not go to Cburcb 

robbed it as effectually of all virtue. 
It was the golden mean of a man's 
friendly recognition of his fellow man, 
with no regard for difference in social 
standing, which was the course so 
successfully followed by these young 
ushers. In the pews there was no with- 
drawing of skirts, nor were there other 
signs of objection to me as a fellow- 
worshiper. On the contrary, a hym- 
nal, or a prayer-book, would be prompt- 
ly offered, and sometimes shared; and, 
at the sendee end, a cordial invitation 
to come again would often follow me 
from the pew door, altho frequently I 
noticed that I was conspicuously lonely 
as a representative of the poor. ' ' 

In some places he attended church 
in his working-clothes, and caused no 
comment. "Many times," he says, 
' * I wondered at the gracious cordial- 
ity which I met." 

The only inference which can be 
drawn from such an experience as this 



jf aults of tbe /Ifoan 97 

is, that the hindrance to church at- 
tendance exists in the man, poor or 
rich, more than in the church itself. 

A large part of the cause of non- 
attendance is in the feeble desire. 
Many of the excuses are those of men 
who do not want to attend worship. 

The man is also influenced by a 
misunderstanding of the purposes of 
the church. Its chief objedl is un- 
known or ignored by many of its crit- 
ics. They have failed to recognize its 
supreme mission as being the mission 
of its Founder and its Head, "To 
seek and to save the lost. ' ' Its busi- 
ness is eternal, and, therefore, unlike 
any of the world's organizations. It 
stands unique and alone. It is on 
earth as the Divine channel for the 
salvation of the immortal soul from sin 
and condemnation. It is, therefore, 
unjust and unreasonable to compare it 
with any of the world's organizations. 
They have a distinctive and beneficial 



98 WLby -Men bo not go to Cburcb 

mission, but it is a wholly temporal 
one. 

The church is the mightiest fadlor 
in human society here and now, but 
its work has to do first and funda- 
mentally with the needs of the soul. 
It cares for the body and touches every 
part of human society, by virtue of 
the planting of these seeds of eternal 
life. Its Gospel is deliverance from 
sin and hell. The man of the world 
has often misunderstood this important 
distinction between the church and his 
lodge or club. He has condemned 
the church because it did not do just 
what his organization did, as if they 
had entered into competition and were 
supposed to do the same thing, and 
only that. The church is not a char- 
itable institution, nor an educational 
institution, nor a. mere center of phil- 
anthropy and culture, but it is pri- 
marily the place of regeneration and 
conversion, and eternal salvation. It 



3f aults of tbe /Ifcan 



is the fortification of righteousness in 
the great battle against sin and wrong. 
It does the very best for man in this 
present life, but that is not its control- 
ling motive. The spirit of the Gospel 
is, "Peace on earth, good- will to 
men. ' ' And it has in it the improve- 
ment of human society and the making 
of life more desirable, but that is inci- 
dental. It remains true that the pur- 
pose of Christ and His coming into the 
world was to prepare men for the 
world to come. We confidently assert 
that the main object of Jesus Christ 
before the Jewish sanhedrim, and upon 
the Roman cross, and in His commis- 
sion of " go ye," was to save individ- 
uals from future torment. The cruci- 
fixion of the Son of God would never 
have taken place for purely temporal 
benefit. It is a mockery of His sacri- 
fice, and a sad perversion of truth, to 
teach that the church ought to have 
most to do with this life, and the pass- 



ioo TttflbE dfcen Do not go to Gburcb 

ing necessities of the individual and 
his society. The emphasis upon the 
present at the expense of the future, 
and the emphasis upon the body in- 
stead of the soul, have wrought untold 
injury, and rooted a poisonous misun- 
derstanding in the minds and hearts 
of men. The church has a social mis- 
sion, but it has first a saving mission. 
It is the only power which can save 
society, but that work can only be 
accomplished according to the eternal 
principles of the Gospel. 

We need the practical teaching of 
the highest morality found in the Ten 
Commandments, and the Sermon on 
the Mount, and the Golden Rule; but 
these very teachings, with all their 
sublimity and power, are dependent 
upon truths which some are now 
casting in the shadow, and yet are so 
important and so vital to the Gospel 
and its power, that without them the 
kingdom of God is an impossibility. 



jfaults of tbe Aan i. 01 

Sn 

We have heard too much in these last 
days concerning the meat and drink 
of the kingdom of God. At the very 
heart of the kingdom, and of every 
interest to human society, lie the re- 
generation, and repentance, and faith 
of Christianity. The first requisite is 
found in the individual man. Society 
can not be born again. "Ye must 
be born again/ ' if society is regen- 
erated. The church must forever save 
the man first, and not touch the sur- 
face needs of the society in which he 
lives. Keep first things first. The 
lodge has its place, and a place of 
benefit in society, but woe be to the 
man who allows it to usurp the place 
of the church, or compares the one 
with the other. They are not upon 
the same level, because they have not 
the same purpose and never can have. 
The open Bible on the altar of a lodge 
room can never take the place of the 
pulpit, which stands in the shadow of 



j ,02 WLby dfcen fco not go to Cburcb 

the cross, and from which is constantly 
heard, " Behold the Lamb of God, 
which taketh away the sin of the 
world." Christ came to teach men 
how to live in relation with each 
other, but He came first to teach them 
how to live in right relation with God. 
The kingdom of God comes here and 
now, just in proportion as that ele- 
mental truth is understood and propa- 
gated. Any competition with any- 
thing else in the world is sin. The 
church stands alone or can not stand 
at all. Its very life and victory de- 
pend upon its holding that distindl 
position in the world. It is the voice 
of the unreasonable as well as the 
unrighteous which says, "the lodge 
is my church." The church does 
and will do the most for human 
society, but will do it only through 
the eternal redemption of the individ- 
ual. The soul must first be stamped 
with the word "blood," before real 



3f aults of tbe jflftan 



and abiding benefit will accrue to 
society. 

The man outside of the church has 
also a misunderstanding of society it- 
self. He has become cynical and 
soured by the introduction of wrong 
principles into his heart and life. 
False statements have been made, and 
he has readily and almost greedily be- 
lieved them without investigating their 
truth. His ideas concerning riches 
and poverty, concerning monopolies 
and modern business transactions, 
have had much to do with the destruc- 
tion of his own happiness and ambi- 
tion. Some men have become des- 
pondent, and others have become care- 
less, and others have been angered, 
and others made indifferent by these 
false impressions. The real conditions 
oftentimes have been far from that 
which they supposed them to be. The 
church has been sadly affected by this 
element of social grievance and misun- 



3/04 WLby .flfoen Do not go to Cburcb 

derstanding, and frequent misrepre- 
sentation. 

Every rich man ought not to be 
cursed, and every poor man ought not 
to be blamed; but there should be 
righteous discrimination and absolute 
justice. When the rich man has been 
condemned, whether justly or un- 
justly, the church which he attends is 
condemned with him. But the man 
who does not attend church, and gives 
that as his reason, may misunderstand 
both society and the church. The 
church may not have the relation to 
society which he supposes it holds. 
It is not, and can not be, held re- 
sponsible for any or all of the wrongs 
in society, even if they are there just as 
he represents them to be. The church 
did not create them, nor does it up- 
hold them, even tho it may not do all 
of its duty in destroying them. The 
Gospel furnishes the only adequate 
principles for the perfection of human 



jf aults of tbe /Ifoan 105 

society, but it has no power to enforce 
them apart from the wills of individual 
men. It can not enter into labor dis- 
putes or business methods by any other 
means than the propagation of the three 
great laws which govern the Chris- 
tian society: the law of service, and the 
law of sacrifice, and the law of love. 
A man's ideas of the actual society 
may be wrong, and his ideas of the 
ideal society may be wrong, and his 
demand upon the preacher and the 
church to propagate them is unques- 
tionably wrong. The rich man wants 
labor organizations condemned, and the 
poor man wants trusts and great com- 
binations of capital condemned, while 
there may not be much reason or re- 
ligion in either desire. It is not easy 
to formulate particular sins of either 
labor or capital, and then justly con- 
demn them. It is not easy to say why 
a combination of manufacturers, or a 
combination of workingmen, is essen- 



106 *rcab£ flften 60 not go to Cburcb 

tially wrong It may be a fadlor for 
the higher life and enlarged privileges 
and wider distribution of products to 
the common people. Its size may not 
be its sin. If there are fraudulent 
operations they ought to be condemned 
in the individual or the combination; 
but many a man is blind to this dis- 
tinction, and he passes by the church 
and negledls to worship, all because 
his own theories, whether true or 
false, and whether they are a part of 
the legitimate business of the church 
or not, are not proclaimed fearlessly 
by every preacher of the Gospel. 

The present misunderstanding of 
society, and the relation of the church 
to it, is a large element in the discus- 
sion of this important question of 
church attendance; and here the man 
is more at fault than the church. 

Back of this element to rightly 
interpret the relation of the church to 
society lies the man's failure to under- 



jfaults of tbe jflfcan 107 

stand himself. He rarely gives per- 
sonal duty and individual responsi- 
bility their proper place in his world. 
His criticisms have become a cataract 
drawn across his vision, and hinder 
that important view of the man alone, 
standing before the eternal throne 
and receiving penalty for the sin of 
omission. He raises himself upon the 
stilts of righteous pride for the fadl of 
not having violated openly some of 
the commandments. But he has neg- 
lected the deeper laws of his life, and 
may rest under greater condemnation. 
If a member of the church is untrue 
to his sacred profession, that can not 
relieve the man outside of the church 
of his own divinely established obliga- 
tion. The man who does not look at 
himself first must lose all the perspec- 
tive in his view. Some persons by a 
cultured or a constitutional imperfec- 
tion are always failing to see the 
important things and their relation to 



108 mby d&en Z>o not go to Cburcb 

themselves and to each other. They 
create pett} T criticisms and become a 
pestering element in the world. A 
sense of perspective is one of the 
supreme requisites for a right vision 
and right living. There is no substi- 
tute for it. Blindness sometimes is 
preferable to its absence. Every 
human being must see himself first 
before he can see his fellow man or his 
world. His own duty must stand in 
the foreground and forever occupy the 
best place. He has always been at 
fault in wilfully ignoring his own per- 
sonal duty to God, to his fellow man, 
to society, and the church. He is also 
blind to his own best interest. Every 
man serves himself best who serves 
God best; and he serves God best who 
renders him the worship of a broken 
heart and a contrite spirit. It is a 
mistake even from a selfish standpoint 
to stay away from the church on the 
Sabbath-day. In it alone is found the 



Jf aults of tbe Man 109 

best recreation and the noblest inspira- 
tion and the highest joy. Every law 
in the universe operates toward that 
end. He is his own enemy who sleeps 
or plays during the church hour. The 
law of gravity has no more power in 
his life than the law which declares, 
"Thou shalt worship the Lord thy 
God." The welfare of his whole 
spiritual, intellectual, and physical 
being depends upon it. The non- 
church-goer makes here his most fatal 
mistake. There has been no provision 
made to occupy its place. It is life's 
greatest need. Anything which he 
allows to prevent his church attend- 
ance is the destroyer of that which is 
most vital to his own welfare here and 
hereafter. 

After Rossini had rendered ' ' Wil- 
liam Tell ' ' the five hundredth time a 
company of musicians came under his 
window in Paris and serenaded him. 
They put upon his brow a golden 



no TKiibE Men Do not go to Cburcb 

crown of laurel leaves, but amid all 
the applause and enthusiasm Rossini 
said, ' ' I would give all this brilliant 
scene for a few days of youth and 
love." 

Some old man whom the world has 
never crowned, but who has passed the 
Sundays of seventy years in the house 
of God, knows more of true life and 
has drunk oftener from the sparkling 
waters of joy and satisfaction. His 
face is wreathed in smiles and he cares 
little for the world's laurels, as he 
sings : 

"The hill of Zion yields 

A thousand sacred sweets, 
Before we reach the heavenly fields 
Or walk the golden streets." 

Every man has an inborn desire 
after God. To ignore it or to smother 
it is fatal. This was recognized as 
fundamental in the law of Sinai, and 
also in the higher Gospel of Calvary. 



ffaults of tbe /l&an ill 

The desire for God and the things 
of God is in the center of a man's 
own soul. He who stifles that cry is 
a self-murderer. If the man without 
a church would honestly and conscien- 
tiously diagnose his ow T n case, he 
would discover this longing in his 
own blood and own atmosphere and 
own world, and would immediately 
seek the house of God to secure its 
satisfaction. Criticisms of the church 
and its membership would cease, and 
in all truth he would be compelled to 
declare, " I am most to blame, and I 
will make the church better for my 
own sake and the sake of my fellow 
men. ' ' It is not infidelity which keeps 
men out of the church. It is blind- 
ness to the highest good and an 
indifference which is born and nur- 
tured in that darkness. The non- 
church-going man does not wake up 
on Sunday morning; he sleeps, he 
forgets, he misunderstands, he lazily 



112 TKabs d&en Do not 30 to Cburcb 

dreams of rest. God speaks, he does 
not hear and his loss is beyond all 
comprehension. That sleep is the 
sleep of death. 

There is also an elemental fault 
upon his part, in the standards which 
he has adopted for judging the church. 
He passes judgment upon the church 
because of what an individual in the 
church may say or do. If one man is 
bad and ninety-nine others are good, 
the one man represents the church for 
him, and he turns his back upon it. 
This is the common, but radically 
false, method. 

What is the purpose of the church, 
and the work of the church, and the 
large majority of the church member- 
ship, and the head and only example 
in the church? These are the just 
standards. Man outside of the church, 
what think you of the Christ, and 
the power and influence of this body 
of His in the world? What have 



jf aults of tbe /Ifcan 113 

you against Christ? Speak it out 
boldly. 

You might find worm-eaten leaves 
in the garden of Fontainebleau, and the 
sting of an insect in the beauty and 
fragrance of the Champs Elysees. The 
old orchard had one specimen of nat- 
ural fruit growing against the back 
fence; but scores of other trees were 
loaded with luscious fruit. I have 
forgotten the taste of that sample of 
sourness, but as long as memory lasts 
I shall still feed upon the delicious ap- 
ples of the old home orchard. You 
would not tear down or trample upon 
the whole garden because one rose 
leaf had received the gnawing of 
the summer destroyer. There are 
members of the church who ought not 
to be ; but there are hundreds and 
thousands, the best of the world, 
living triumphant Christian lives. 
Their religion does not consist wholly 
of hymn-singing and church-going, 



114 TKHb£ A*n So n ^t go to Cburcb 

but every-day consecrated Christ-like 
living. 

If you wish to know real art, study 
the great masters. If you wish to 
find the value of real Christians, study 
the masters of sacrifice and devotion, 
and righteous life. 

Within the sweep of this great cir- 
cumference of the man's fault lies his 
misunderstanding of the claims of 
Christ, and the claims of the church to 
allegiance and support. He boasts of 
his morality and imaginary power to 
live without the church, unmindful of 
the important f actor which the church 
has been in his life. All his boasted 
morality and culture and manhood are 
but the reflected light of the church. 
The moon with equal reason might 
call the world's attention to her sil- 
very garments and the glory which 
she sheds at midnight upon the dark- 
ened earth. Her light is simply the 
reflection ot the sun's light, a cold, 



jfaults of tbe /nban us 

dark sphere, receiving all its brightness 
from the center of light and heat. It 
is hollow conceit for any man to stand 
outside of the church and say, li Be- 
hold my righteousness ; I am even 
holier than thou, and have as great 
enthusiasm for humanity and interest 
in philanthropy and education . ' ' Oh ! 
swollen pride, self-inflicted blindness, 
thou art cold and dark and dead. All 
thy light is reflected from the Sun of 
Righteousness. It is the shining of 
the face of Jesus Christ, and the influ- 
ence and power of His church in your 
life, and your world. All these cen- 
turies of its existence, the church and 
its sacrifice, and service and salva- 
tion, have wrought out this glorious 
possibility for your life. Your boasts 
would rest as a naked falsehood upon 
the lips of a cannibal, or some one with 
the last vestige of humanity disappear- 
ing, if it were not for the Christianity 
of the church. The church which has 



116 TlGibE *en &o not qo to Gburcb 

preserved this Gospel has made man's 
civilization what it is, and his salva- 
tion what it may be. It has builded 
his asylums and hospitals, and edu- 
cational institutions. It has been the 
birthplace of all philanthropy and cul- 
ture, and civilizing agency. It has 
been the source of light in the world's 
darkness. No man can, with a shadow 
of justice, ignore its righteous and 
pressing claims. It turns his criticism 
back upon himself, and stiU demands, 
with a deathless urgency, his allegiance 
and support. All worth that he has, 
and is, he owes to it. Thrice shame 
upon him for the attempted refusal of 
payment. Its claims must be satisfied, 
either here or hereafter. 

With all the faults of the church, 
the failure of any man to recognize its 
temporal and eternal blessing is a 
greater fault. We can not claim per- 
fection for the church, but there is far 
less of that element in the conscience- 



JFaults of tfte /Ifcan 117 

stricken, excuse-making man outside 
of the church. The church has al- 
lowed too much condemnation to rest 
upon itself, and has made too little 
exposition of the faults in the man. 
The claims of Christ still rest im- 
movable upon him. No obligation 
was ever placed upon the man inside 
of the church, which God has not also 
placed upon the man outside of the 
church. It is the Christ of the cross 
upon whom every man's eyes should 
be centered, and his pierced hand is 
extended to invite the cooperation of 
every man in the sacrificial work of 
the world's redemption. 

Archias, the magistrate of Thebes, 
was sitting with many mighty men 
drinking wine. A messenger came in, 
bringing a letter informing him of a 
conspiracy to end his life, and warn- 
ing him to flee. Archias took the 
letter, but instead of opening it, put it 
into his pocket, and said to the mes- 



118 TObE flften fco not go to Cburcb 

senger who brought it, " Business to- 
morrow." The next day he died; 
before he opened the letter the govern- 
ment was overturned. When he read 
the letter, it was too late. 

O! man, let not the force of sin 
and the world about thy life, or the 
thunders of condemnation silence the 
voice of the Spirit and the church, 
which say ' ' come. " It is one of the 
sweetest words in the language, 
and, after all, still echoes through 
every church of Christ, " Come, COME, 
Come!" 



JFaults of Society 119 



III 

FAUI/fS OF SOCIETY 

/^vnk of the favorite paintings of 
critics, and one which has es- 
tablished itself in popular favor, is 
Millet's "Angelus." It is not bril- 
liant in color or elaborate in design; 
on the contrary, it is marked with 
simplicity and is subdued in tone. A 
young laborer stands in a field, by his 
side his wife, a simple peasant girl, 
with blue apron and short skirt and 
white cap. He holds his hat in hand 
and bows reverently. She clasps her 
hands, and is the expression of devo- 
tion. They are the only figures in 
the pidlure. It is now early evening, 
when the glow of sunset is coloring 
the clouds and falling upon the earth. 
There is a fork in the ground; at their 



120 MbE dfcen 60 not go to Cburcb 

side a wheel-barrow, a basket of pota- 
toes, and everything which tells the 
story of a day's work. The artist has 
made the light to fall upon his 
bowed head and her folded hands. 
What is the meaning of this scene? 
Why does it seem as if the very win- 
dows of Heaven are open above it, 
and the interest of the angels is 
centered upon that ordinary field? 
Far away in the dim outline a church- 
spire rises against the sky. You can 
almost hear the sound of the bell. It 
is the evening "Angelus." At its 
sound the laborer pauses to worship. 
In the church and its spire is discov- 
ered the secret of the great artist's 
beautiful conception. 

The sound of the church bell is the 
keynote of the world's music. The 
sight of the church spire is the key to 
the world's beauty. The triumphal 
march of human society depends upon 
their preservation. Whatever forces 



jfaults of Society 121 

there are in the world militating against 
the interests of the church ought to be 
recognized as most dangerous enemies, 
and opposed with all the courage of a 
true heroism. Society is to blame for 
some of the vacant places in our 
churches. 

The home is vitally related to the 
church. They both alike, and in rela- 
tion to each other, enter into the 
foundations of society. The whole 
superstructure rests upon them. If 
poor material or poor workmanship 
are permitted here, there must be 
weakness and crumbling and danger, 
and at last destruction in the building. 
Whatever affects the home affects the 
church. Home life has suffered 
material changes within recent years. 
The tendency in this age is toward 
the destruction of some of the essen- 
tial features of home and home life. 
Our great centers of population are 
practically homeless. Families have 



122 TlxabE jflfcen Do not go to Gburcb 

an existence within a few square feet 
of space inclosed between brick and 
mortar, but they do not live in homes. 
The methods and necessities in 
modern living have rendered it 
impossible for a large proportion of 
this present generation to know any- 
thing about real home life. Not only 
do they live in tenements and apart- 
ments and contracted city houses, but 
are in a constant state of migration, 
and all this has much to do with the 
relation of the church to the people, 
and its abiding influence upon them. 
Its most powerful grip must be upon 
the home. There has also been a 
change in the religious element in 
home life. Most parents are guilty 
of negledt. The church did not 
occupy its proper place in the training 
of their children. The emphasis was 
always placed upon something else in 
the child's heart and life. School was 
primary, church attendance secondary. 



jfaults of Society 123 

Preparation for life was made without 
the chief ingredient. Ambition was 
nurtured and worship ignored. As 
the boy is, so will the man be. We 
are creatures of habit, and the parent 
is largely the maker of those habits. 
If the church attendance had been 
made as important in the boy's life as 
the school or the store, in all prob- 
ability he would have retained his 
place in the church. He fails in this 
supreme duty when a man, because 
his father and mother failed in their' s 
when he was a boy. 

I have seen the famous point in 
Yellowstone Park, where upon the 
crest of the Rocky Mountains the 
water seems to hesitate and meditate 
upon which way it should go. At 
that "continental divide" a part of 
the sparkling spring turns eastward 
and a part flows westward. The one 
reaches the Atlantic, the other the 
Pacific. It all depends upon the deci- 



124 IKabE dfcen bo not go to Cburcb 

sion at that critical point. The home 
may be the ' ' continental divide " in a 
boy's life. At that point the parents' 
influence may turn him toward the 
church or toward the world. Their 
responsibility is tremendous at that 
deciding moment. In these days of 
rush and worldliness, religious teach- 
ing and even reading have been 
banished from most homes. What- 
ever is done for this part of the child's 
life has been relegated to the work of 
the Sunday-school, if it is given any 
attention whatever. The Sunday- 
school can never take the place of the 
home. The teacher can never be to 
the child what God intended the parent 
should be. Even the Sunday-school 
with all of its blessing for our world 
may not help church attendance, but 
hinder it, if it stands alone in the 
child's life. Our great progress in 
Sunday-school work and the unmis- 
takable tendency to occupy the place 



JF aults of Society 125 

of the regular church service among 
the young, can not be forgotten. No 
parent who cares for the religious life 
of his children can afford to allow the 
Sunday-school to attempt the work 
which rightfully belongs to the home, 
or to usurp the place of the church it- 
self. There is no reason why it 
should. It is not the fault of the 
Sunday-school. It is the fault of 
home training. We need more Sun- 
day-schools, not less; but we need first 
better parents with a larger vision of 
their power and their responsibility. 
Many of the men of to-day do not 
attend church, because the parents of 
yesterday did not train them in this 
most sacred duty, as well as give them 
a delight in this highest privilege. 
Most of the churchless men have been 
Sunday-school boys, but did not regu- 
larly attend church. As soon as their 
trousers were lengthened, the Sunday- 
school was too childish for them, and 



126 rabs flhen Do not go to Gbutcb 

the church service was foreign to their 
habit of life. To call the Sunday- 
school the "children's church " is 
unjust to the Sunday-school and injur- 
ious to the child. This formation of 
habit in the boy's life is a most potent 
fadtor in the problem of churches 
without men. In addition to this 
carelessness and species of criminality 
on the part of parents there is a grow- 
ing irreverence in the home — the 
fearless and foolish criticism of things 
sacred ; the frivolous treatment of 
everything concerning the church. 
The Bible has not retained itssandlity; 
even the dust-covered book on the 
table had more influence than the 
home without any Bible at all. In 
some homes nominally Christian it is 
the custom for those who have 
attended church to fill the boy's ears 
with un- Christian criticisms of the 
service and the sermon. Many a 
man's whole future relation to the 



jfaults of Society 127 

church has been settled at the Sunday 
dinner table, when the church service 
was rehearsed and rehashed with shal- 
low fault-finding until it was made 
positively indigestible. The man now 
is a moral and spiritual dyspeptic 
and in the poorest kind of religious 
health because of that food in his 
boyhood days. The home created a 
distaste and a dislike for the church. 
Every element of religion and Godli- 
ness and reverence in the home helps 
to fill the church. If the home loses 
its religion, the church will lose its 
men. The church is the salvation of 
the home, but in one sense the home 
is the salvation of the church. 

Modern society has also hindered 
church attendance, through an in- 
creasing and largely unnecessary toil 
on the Sabbath-day. It has closed 
the church doors in front of hundreds 
of thousands of men. Much of this 
evil is of recent origin. 



128 rabs /nben Do not go to Gburcb 

Modern invention has mingled a 
peril with its blessing. These advan- 
tages for a part of mankind come 
through injury to another part. Steam 
and eledtricity have driven the Sun- 
day out of each week for a vast army 
of men. Other demands of this day 
are associated with these forces in the 
same ruinous work. Some travel and 
traffic and work are unquestionably 
necessary on the Sabbath-day; but the 
larger part of that which is now going 
on might be avoided with benefit to 
man and machinery alike. Without 
conscience or hesitation man and ma- 
chinery are pushing their way through 
the sandlity of the seventh day. The 
demands are so great upon thousands 
of men, and many of them at one time 
in the church, that they are rendered 
unfit and unable to occupy their places 
in the house of God. The roar of 
machinery has silenced the music of 
the church bells. It has almost 



3f aults of Society 129 

silenced memory and conscience. 
Here is a man, once religious, who 
now goes to his work so early in the 
morning, and returns so late at night, 
that he rarely ever sees his children, 
except on Sunday, and he is obliged 
to work every Sunday afternoon, or 
lose his position. It is wasted time 
and supremest folly to tell that man 
that he ought to go to church on the 
remaining half of that day. Notwith- 
standing the claims of the church and 
Divine worship upon him, he believes 
that he is justified in spending his few 
leisure hours with his family. He is 
a typical illustration of thousands of 
men who are strangers to the church. 

A Christian wife recently told me 
that her child never saw his father 
only on Sunday, and then but a small 
part of the day. 

Our social order pradtically disquali- 
fies multitudes of men for church at- 
tendance. If some workingmen had 



130 *oabs ascxx So not go to Gburcb 

more leisure, they undoubtedly would 
abuse it; but the facft still stands that 
many of them are more sinned against 
than sinning. 

The present conditions have not 
only made Sunday a time of toil in- 
stead of rest for many, but there has 
also been a rapid increase of strain and 
pressure during the other six days, 
thus rendering men unfit for the ser- 
vice of God. This is a country and a 
time of rush and excitement. It is 
pushing and crowding which results 
in nerve-shattering and physical 
weariness and wreck. The constant 
effort to crowd more into less space, 
and more into less time, does not 
help, but hinders the church. This 
necessary absorption in daily labors 
does not leave room in the mind and 
heart for anything else. These large 
drafts upon every energy and thought 
are an educating, habit- forming factor 
in the man's life. There eventually 



3f aults of Society 131 

comes the condition of not having 
anything left of time and strength for 
church worship. 

Paul declared, in regard to his Chris- 
tianity, ' ' This one thing I do." Most 
men now must honestly declare that 
same thing concerning their every-day 
work and business. Everything in 
their world is made to revolve around 
the material, and at last a church serv- 
ice has lost all its attraction for them. 
It lies in a haze, and too far away 
from reality. They say it is dreamy 
and mystical, and their desires must 
be met with something material and 
tangible. The church appears to them 
widely different from any other meet- 
ing, or their own business, or political 
or social gatherings. 

Habit and the swing of the whole 
life over to materialism has rendered 
the church atmosphere disagreeable 
and unpleasant to many. An un- 
loosening grip upon the plane and the 



132 TKHbi2 d&en &o not 00 to Cburcb 

pen alike has destroyed all the ' ' sub- 
stance" of faith, and created a de- 
mand for the things which are seen. 
This materialistic age, with its mad 
rush for gold and power, has benumbed 
religious consciousness. Most men 
have concentrated their thoughts and 
desires and activities upon purely tem- 
poral acquisition. This is a prolific 
cause of the evil under discussion. 
This has robbed men of the time and 
the inclination for spiritual reflection. 
This strain upon mind and sensibility 
has either kept men away from church, 
or made them dissatisfied with the 
method of worship. There is a vital 
relation between this condition and 
the craze for amusement and entertain- 
ment. 

Many churches and pulpits have 
forgotten their divine mission, and 
have sought to silence the clamor of a 
materialistic age by the introduction 
of the sensational, which was not sal- 



JFaults of Society 138 

vational. There is a sensational which 
is righteous and means life. Blessed 
be the preacher who will not be a 
corpse; and blessed be the church 
which will not be a tomb. The 
preacher and the church both must 
live with their age and up to it, if they 
reach men. They should be in the 
world, but not of it. They should 
meet with holy rebuke the demand for 
a rivalry with the theater and concert. 
In the new definition of the sensa- 
tional, men will find that it is righteous, 
but that it does not cater to the mate- 
rial. 

The forces in society which are de- 
structive of the sancftity of the Sab- 
bath-day are also among the forces 
which are keeping men away from the 
church. The Sunday newspaper is 
the most guilty of all these criminals. 
It ought to be tried and sentenced. 
No justice on earth or in heaven would 
leave it to continue its deadly work. 



134 TKIlbE /i&en fco not go to Cburcb 

There are ten arguments against it for 
every shallow one in favor of it. It 
has usurped the place of the Bible, and 
even the best of the world's literature. 
It keeps thousands of men away from 
the church, who would be in their 
places, if it was not for this unholy oc- 
cupation of sacred time. It is the 
guilty party also in unfitting hundreds 
of those who do come late to the 
services. This stupendous increase in 
size and numbers and attractions and 
evil influence is dealing a death-blow 
to every interest of the church as well 
as society itself. It necessitates the 
employment of hundreds of men and 
boys to prepare, print, and distribute 
it. It vitiates literary tastes, deadens 
religious feeling, destroys desire for 
worship, and drives worshipers from 
the house of God. This is a fearful 
indictment, but challenges a denial. 
Whatever small amount of good there 
is in it can never atone for its abom- 



jf aults of Society 135 



inable curse. It strikes the Sab- 
bath where no other agency reaches. 
It thrusts itself boldly into the very 
face of the man who loves the day. It 
reaches the class of people which the 
saloon and every other element of its 
kind does not affect. It says, serpent- 
like, eat these, and "thou shalt not 
surely die." With a righteous air it 
declares at the head of one column, in 
the whole fifty pages, ' ' Remember 
the Sabbath-day to keep it holy," and 
then fills up that ' ' religious ' ' column 
with some church scandal or Biblical 
criticism. The men of to-day remain 
in their homes or hotels nearly all day 
with this great volume of worldliness 
and wickedness in their hands, and 
imagine that they are a little religious 
after all; unmindful of the great re- 
sponsibilities of life and the relentless 
claims of the church upon every man. 
Oh! Sunday newspaper, thou art one 
of the greatest enemies of the church 



136 TKiibE Men bo not go to Cburcb 

of Jesus Christ. Thou shalt be held 
everlastingly responsible for the ab- 
sence of millions from its services. 

There has been an increase in clubs 
and social organizations, which are 
kept open and crowded with attrac- 
tions for men on the Sabbath-day. 
That which was considered sin only a 
few years ago, is now regarded as a 
necessity in life's strain, and a requi- 
site for the rest for which the day was 
established. The fundamental idea of 
worship and change and holiness and 
service, has been thrust into the back- 
ground. 

The bicycle has carried its large 
number of men away from the church, 
and fastened habits upon them which 
will never be broken. They have 
been made slaves to Sabbath desecra- 
tion, by that which should have been 
a blessing. They have turned the 
blessing into a curse by making it the 
means of violating the first command- 



3Fault6 of Society 137 

ment. We need a return in society to 
reverence for every sacred and divinely 
ordained thing. Sunday is not the 
same as every other day. The Bible 
is not the same as every other book. 
The church is not the same as any other 
institution. Irreverence was never so 
much abroad, and the churches will 
never be filled so long as men breathe 
that poisonous air. How carelessly 
they talk about and handle sacred 
things. There is no more taking off 
of shoes on holy ground. The modern 
Sunday can not be separated from the 
modern church. It is the environ- 
ment of the church. 

' ' L^e Grand Prix ' ' is the name 
given to the great racing day in Paris, 
which corresponds to Derby Day in 
England. On that day the most cele- 
brated horses enter the contest; an 
enormous sum, perhaps a million 
francs, is distributed in prizes. Like 
many public festivals in France, it 



138 7KabE &>en &o not go to Cburcb 

occurs on Sunday. When General 
Grant was in Paris, he was, of course, 
the object of universal attention. As 
a special mark of respedl he was in- 
vited by the president of the republic 
to occupy the grand stand. Such an 
invitation, proceeding from the mon- 
arch or chief magistrate, is equivalent 
to a command, like an invitation to 
Windsor, or any royal residence; for 
a person to decline is an unheard-of 
thing. But General Grant, in a polite 
note to the president of the republic, 
said: "It is not in accordance with 
the custom of my country, or with the 
spirit of my religion, to spend Sunday 
in this way. I therefore beg that you 
will permit me to decline the honor 
which you have done me. ' ' And so, 
when the day came, General Grant 
was seen quietly sitting among the 
worshipers in the American Chapel. 

That spirit and courage is one of 
the largest factors in the problem of 



jfaulta of Society 139 

church attendance. Reverence for the 
day is the pathway to the house of 
God. 

Our present social system allows 
the saloon and other kindred evils to 
do their deadly work in opposition to 
the interests of the church as well as 
society itself; and most always to pro- 
ceed in their diabolism in violation of 
every law on the statute books. Kegs 
and demijohns and decanters and hogs- 
heads and glasses and bottles and vic- 
tims are formed into a wall in front of 
every church door. This is a fortifi- 
cation of the enemy. It stands in the 
way of the kingdom of God. Hun- 
dreds of thousands of men, the most 
generous, large-hearted, and many the 
best of the human family, would be 
worshipers in the church and servants 
of the most high God, and marching 
heavenward, if it were not for this im- 
passable barrier. An army of 600,000 
drunkards in America shakes the 



140 TKflbE jfl&en 5o not 90 to Cburcb 

earth with its staggering tread, and 
every one of them ought to be in the 
house of God. Society permits the 
saloon and its kindred of positive and 
outspoken immorality to destroy these 
men, and thwart the holiest efforts of 
the church. 

Society also permits, with guilty 
sandlion, some things which are di- 
redlly contrary to the elemental prin- 
ciples which are taught in the church. 
Business transactions, which would 
once have received bitterest condemna- 
tion, are now passed by without no- 
tice. They are declared right simply 
because of demand and without regard 
to principle. Policy has come to be 
senior partner in the concern. It is so 
often repeated with the business man 
and his employees, and everybody 
have come to regard it as true, that 
"business can not be transadled to- 
day in stria 'honesty,' "— that " ' ly- 
ing' is essential in order to selling." 



JFaults of Society 141 

The church has not yet incorporated 
this teaching into its morality. It has 
not made this false principle as an ad- 
dendum to its Bible. And the world 
says: "The church is behind the 
age." The church is not at fault 
here. She can not lower the Divine 
standards; they are eternal, and as 
binding upon one age as another. 
The lines are not drawn distinctly 
enough. The Bible is explicit in its 
demands. It reveals the dishonest 
man, and the small and large gam- 
bler, whether in stocks or dice, and 
places the mark upon falsehood every- 
where. The church, with a conscience 
and a Bible, and a tremendous respon- 
sibility, can not cater to the demands 
or methods of this day. Society has 
no right to say i ' old-fashioned ' ' to the 
church. The church has the right and 
duty to say ' ' condemned ' ' to society. 
This great gulf between the church 
and business methods is the fault of 



142 TlElbE flken Do not go to Cburcb 

the social world, and not the church. 
Her glory and her salvation are in 
her abiding morality and eternal pu- 
rity. 

This is preeminently a sociological 
era. The dodlrine of society, the rela- 
tions of men to each other, are receiv- 
ing the emphasis. This has wrought 
injury in the separation of its efforts 
from those of the church, and also 
in ignoring the great and difficult 
work of the church. The socialist 
has demanded revolution. The church 
more wisely has taught regener- 
ation. Many men have blamed the 
church because it has not more rapidly 
transformed the world, unmindful of 
the fadl that the Christian social idea 
is the highest ever conceived. Its re- 
alization must necessarily be the most 
difficult. It is the leaven which works 
internally, and by a gradual process 
changes the whole lump of society. 
Men have become impatient, and en- 



jFaulta of Society 143 

tered other organizations in order to 
help their fellow men, and to make a 
better society. Their principle is at 
fault, and the church has had to suffer 
the lack of their cooperation in the 
Divine method of social reorganization 
and elevation. Most marvelous results 
have been attained during these Chris- 
tian centuries in giving women their 
rights and children protection, and in 
the disappearance of slavery and in re- 
forms in labor, and in everything for 
the betterment of man and his world. 
It has appeared slow and impractical 
to many men, and they have deserted 
the church for some social idea, which 
avowedly aimed at the revolution of 
the whole social system. 

The work of the church in its rela- 
tion to society has been misunderstood 
and misrepresented in the modern 
social discussions. It saves society 
by first saving the individual. It 
preserves the divine order of love to 



144 Mbs /Dben Do not 30 to Cburcb 

God first, and the resultant love for 
man second. It declares that the 
fatherhood of God must precede the 
brotherhood of man. These seeds of 
individual regeneration will at last 
produce the golden harvest of a per- 
fect society. The secret of all social 
wrong rests in the individual heart. 
This might be called the century of 
Christian institutions, but they have 
to find their root in the Christian 
spirit and ideas and principles in the 
hearts of men. All other effort is the 
building of houses upon sand. The 
winds come and the storms beat, and 
they fall. The church can afford to 
stand the criticism of being slow, as 
long as the result is sure. This is a 
period of socialistic endeavor and 
organization and propagation of social 
ethics and social politics. The church 
in its disagreement has suffered. But 
time will reveal the divinity of its 
principles and the glory of its achieve- 



jf aults of Society 145 

ments. Men now forsaking the church 
will some day forsake their mistaken 
idea. The church is the savior of 
both the man and his society. These 
characteristics and movements and 
principles which are false are not frac- 
tions, but units and important ele- 
ments in the grave problems which 
confront the church. 

The church is not perfedt, as we 
have sorrowfully discovered and cou- 
rageously declared, but the whole 
burden of fault, as some people have 
supposed, does not rest upon it. I^et 
its highest wisdom and deepest con- 
secration be utilized in the correction 
of every fault and in the redemption 
of every man. But in all justice and 
in all love let the faults of the man and 
his society be boldly revealed and un- 
hesitatingly condemned. 

With all his faults man is still 
worthy of the most patient and con- 
secrated effort for his salvation. With 



146 mby dfoen Do not go to Gbutcb 

all its faults society is still moving on 
toward its complete redemption. With 
all her faults the church is still the 
queen of earth and the bride of 
heaven's King. 

I remember a famous morning upon 
one of the most beautiful and attract- 
ive and healthful islands which rest in 
the arms of the old Atlantic. The 
ocean had thrown about that small 
circle of land a cloak of dense fog. 
Every white sail was hidden; no other 
land could be discerned, and even the 
waters themselves could only be heard. 
It was almost like night and storm for 
darkness and dampness. The small 
steamer found its way at last to the 
wharf, and then crept like a blind man 
along its familiar course, guided by 
fog-bell and almost by instindt. It 
moved across the bay in momentary 
danger, and no land or river could be 
discovered. The trusty pilot pushed 
the prow of his boat relentlessly 



jFaults of Society 147 

through fog and doubt into the cur- 
rent of the stream, and against rushing 
tide. It was a morning without view, 
and with forced joy; but the larger 
hand had not moved around the dial 
before the tide had changed, the wind 
had changed, the air had changed, 
the whole world was transformed. 
The sun of that early morning had 
scattered darkness, and defeated fog, 
and uncovered the sapphire glory of 
heaven's canopy. Never was there 
such brightness and freshness and 
clearness. The upper world seemed 
to have touched the lower. The tides 
were coming in and filling the shore- 
line to the full. The breezes were 
laden with fragrance and joy. The 
marvelous and welcome change of that 
morning was sudden, but complete. 
Fogs have hidden, but never destroy 
the sun. The morning always breaks; 
the clouds always scatter; the tide 
comes in. 



148 THlb£ Aben Do not go to Cburcb 

Oh ! church of Christ, face the sun- 
rise. The King is still on His golden 
throne, and conquers the darkness. 
The queen, His church, by her re- 
flected light and power, still moves 
the tides of the world. 



may 17 Ibyy 



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